Pentagon IG: White House Refused To Cooperate With Investigation Into Manipulated Iraq Intel

[sabra]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/09/wh-pentagon-ig/


Pentagon IG: White House Refused To Cooperate With Investigation Into Manipulated Iraq Intel

<snip>

Testifying about the report before the Senate Armed Services Committee today, Gimble said Feith’s office “did not provide the most accurate analysis of intelligence to senior decision makers” at a time when the White House was making the public case for war at home.

While Feith’s “intelligence” analysis was presented to the White House, Gimble explained that he was unable to determine to what extent the White House used Feith’s false reports. Under questioning from Sen. John Warner (R-VA), Gimble revealed that White House attorneys refused to allow National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley to be interviewed:

GIMBLE: Senator, we requested an interview with Mr. Hadley. The lawyers at the National Security Council did not let us interview him. So we requested and were unable to. Frankly, he is not a member of our department, so we don’t have any authority to interview…

WARNER: I understand that. But the simple fact is you made a request, for whatever reason. On counsel’s advice, he declined.

GIMBLE: Right.

At the conclusion of the hearing, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) pledged that his committee would pursue both Hadley and Scooter Libby. “We will be talking to witnesses who presented (the Feith analysis) to the Vice President’s Office and to the National Security Council.” Addressing Gimble, Levin said, “So if you would supply us with the names of the people from the Feith office that did make this presentation, we will be interviewing those folks.” Stay tuned.

[seafan]

1. SUBPOENA. Before they take newly created jobs in Baghdad. n/t

[bobthedrummer]

2. Joseph E. Schmitz preceded Gimble as Pentagon IG. eom

[steve2470]

3. to me this is a bombshell

Am I reading too much into this ?

[sabra]

4. the whole report is a HUGE bombshell, IMO

[bobthedrummer]

5. With a lot of sub-munitions n/t

[blm]

10. Don't you just love when WH always says they are 'cooperating fully' because they

want to know the truth just as much as we do? Just like Plame outing, eh?

[steve2470]

6. bumparoo nt

[catmandu57]

7. It's starting to hit the fan

many fans actually, somebody is bound to slip with something big.

[bdamomma]

17. you're right between Fitz and these committees someone is going to

slip up, and I hope everything points to Cheney.

[magellan]

8. I hope it's true that Senator Levin is like a dog with a bone

...as another DUer remarked earlier. It's going to take that kind of tenacity to get to the bottom of who did what, and if it's done right it'll go to the top of the unitary executive branch.

[steve2470]

9. this is gigantic..keep it bumped please nt

[bdamomma]

18. oh sure, John Dean even said start up with someone small and

follow the chain of command, it will lead right up to the big guys. Cheney and Bush and even Rummy that weasel they have to pay.

[Supersedeas]

11. Was Al Gonzo or Danny Pretty Boy Bartlett WH counsel at the time?

[bdamomma]

19. but these thugs have their lawyers in place don't they?

[magellan]

12. kick

[steve2470]

13. kick nt

[AnnieBW]

14. Can You Smell What the Feith Is Cooking?

Smells like intelligence to me!

[Disturbed]

15. The Offcie of Special Plans created by Darth & Rumsfailed

was "Special" alright. This office was created to circumvent the CIA and perpetrated a fraud upon the World. Not Illegal? BS!!!

[bdamomma]

16. this all points to Cheney I hope they burn his a$$.

[TexasLawyer]

20. kick

[seafan]

21. Sounds as if the OSP and WHIG might have subpoenas in their future.

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/02/09/wh-pentagon-ig">Pentagon IG: White House Refused To Cooperate With Investigation Into Manipulated Iraq Intel

February 9, 2007

At the conclusion of the hearing, Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) pledged that his committee would pursue both Hadley and Scooter Libby. “We will be talking to witnesses who presented to the Vice President’s Office and to the National Security Council.” Addressing Gimble, Levin said, “So if you would supply us with the names of the people from the Feith office that did make this presentation, we will be interviewing those folks.” Stay tuned.

Senator Levin is set to open the floodgates on the OSP (Office of Special Plans).... the *intelligence-cooking* arm of the cabal that dragged us into this illegal war.

I hope that the *marketing* arm of the OSP.... the WHIG (White House Iraq Group), tasked to sell the bogus intelligence fabricated by the OSP, will also be subpoenaed.


The WHIG, first convened by Andrew Card, consisted of:

Karl Rove
Karen Hughes
Mary Matalin
James R. Wilkinson
Nicholas E. Calio
Condoleezza Rice
Stephen Hadley
AND I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby



Depiction of Threat Outgrew Supporting Evidence

By Barton Gellman and Walter Pincus
Washington PostStaff Writers

Sunday, August 10, 2003; Page A01

Systematic coordination began in August, (2002) when Chief of Staff formed the White House Iraq Group, or WHIG, to set strategy for each stage of the confrontation with Baghdad. A senior official who participated in its work called it "an internal working group, like many formed for priority issues, to make sure each part of the White House was fulfilling its responsibilities."

In an interview with the New York Times published Sept. 6, Card did not mention the WHIG but hinted at its mission. "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August," he said.

The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy advisers led by Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, along with I. Lewis Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

The first days of September would bring some of the most important decisions of the prewar period: what to demand of the United Nations in the president's Sept. 12 address to the General Assembly, when to take the issue to Congress, and how to frame the conflict with Iraq in the midterm election campaign that began in earnest after Labor Day.

A "strategic communications" task force under the WHIG began to plan speeches and white papers. There were many themes in the coming weeks, but Iraq's nuclear menace was among the most prominent.

"No stages. This is total war. We are fighting a variety of enemies. There are lots of them out there. All this talk about first we are going to do Afghanistan, then we will do Iraq, then we take a look around and see how things stand. That is entirely the wrong way to go about it ... If we just let our vision of the world go forth, and we embrace it entirely, and we don't try to ... piece together clever diplomatic solutions ... but just wage a total war against these tyrants, I think we will do very well. Our children will sing great songs about us years from now."

---Richard Perle, policy adviser to G.W. Bush, 2001

[cui bono]

30. Wow! That Richard Perle quote is something! nt

[notadmblnd]

32. Sounds very Naziesque to me

Children singing songs about us in the future. Sounds nothing like the America I grew up knowing.

[Nikki Stone1]

22. Absolutely no surprise.

I'm glad it's coming out

[steve2470]

23. kick nt

[steve2470]

24. kick nt

[crickets]

25. Kick Kickety K&R!!

:dem:

[Bobbie Jo]

26. Thank you Senator Levin! n/t

[dweller]

27. ...

:kick:

with righteous indignation,
dp

[steve2470]

28. kick nt

[fooj]

29. War criminals.

[halobeam]

31. kicking

[leveymg]

33. Spiked investigation - IG didn't even ask "why"?

Duncan Kinder poses some interesting questions at Sic Semper Tyrannis about how the IG came to the conclusions he did:


http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2007/02/inappropriate_b.html#comments
It would be extremely pertinent to establish some objective standards here.

Has the Inspector General previously issued such reports, with regard to Vietnam, Korea, Iran Contra, Bay of Pigs or some other such incident.

If not, why not?

If so, then what conclusions did those reports arrive at and upon the basis of what?

How did the media and Congress then respond to those reports?

In short, is Feith currently being treated differently than historically has been the norm for Defense Dept. officials?

A: As far as I can determine,there are no standards because this sort of counter-intelligence investigation is a first for the Pentagon IG.

The DoD IG in recent times has carried out numerous investigations into politically significant -- but, not politically-motivated -- crimes, such as contracting fraud and prisoner abuses. I can not recall a previous instance in which the Pentagon IG has been tasked to investigate a rogue intelligence shop set up by the SOD and Deputy Secretary to funnel disinformation to OVP in support of a White House policy to preemptively invade a series of foreign states.

This is, indeed, a first, and the rookie Pentagon IG proved inadequate to the task. The question of legality of crimes of state is better left to those who've had some dealings with it - the FBI and US Attorney's Office.

As a measure of how inadequate Mr. Gimble's investigation was, he pointedly didn't ask OSP briefers why they withheld the consensus views accepted by the Intelligence Community when they briefed Cheney, Libby and Hadley on alleged Iraq WMDs and ties to al-Qaeda.

If you're forbidden to ask the question why breifings provided selective (and incorrect) version of the data - because the answer might go to political motive - then your investigation won't provide probative answers of criminal guilt or innocence. Will it?

For more on the inadequacies of the IG report, please see, http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=166938&mesg_id=166938

[MasonJar]

34. Steve, that is a great picture!

[DearAbby]

35. I hate these people!

God's take mercy on my soul, but I do!

[flyarm]

36. the best criminals eventually make mistakes..they all do!! or someone turns them in! n/t

[DearAbby]

37. Kick this

[Martin Eden]

38. "The intelligence was all wrong"

Geez, I wonder why ... could it have anything to do with the "alternative" intelligence operation the neocons set up in the Pentagon? When Cheney & Rumsfeld didn't like the intel supplied by the CIA, they manufactured their own.

Now is the time for the Fourth Estate to make amends for its complicity in this criminal enterprise. They need to make it plainly clear to EVERYONE that the Bush/neocon administration DELIBERATELY DECEIVED the American people into war.

We need more journalists like Seymour Hersh, who exposed the Office of Special Plans back in October 2003.
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/031027fa_fact