Pentagon insider, Douglas Feith, attacks war plan, Powell, Bush

[G_j]

Pentagon insider attacks war plan

A former Pentagon official has written a book attacking Colin Powell, the CIA and other US officials over the US-led Iraq war, the Washington Post reports.

As under secretary of defence until 2005 Douglas Feith was closely involved with the planning of the invasion.

However, in "War and Decision", he blames officials outside the Pentagon for seriously mismanaging the invasion and occupation, the Post reports.

Out next month, it is the first insider account of Pentagon decision-making.

The newspaper says that Mr Feith accuses intelligence officials and the US state department, led at the time by Mr Powell, of repeatedly scuppering defence department plans for the invasion.

According to the Post, Mr Feith claims that US President George W Bush told a National Security Council meeting "war is inevitable" weeks before a team of UN weapons inspectors, headed by Hans Blix, had made their final report on Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities.

'More harm than good'

Mr Feith reportedly singles Mr Powell out for criticism, saying that though he allowed himself to be portrayed as a dove, he never spoke out against the war.
..more..

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7286683.stm

[Ilsa]

1. I heard that he praised Rumsferatu in the book.

Feith is another one that should be tried for complicity in war crimes, IMO.

[G_j]

2. oh yes

to the Hague! a war criminal for sure.

[roguevalley]

18. he was so hated in the pentagon that a general said if the USA was

being invaded and he had only one bullet in his gun, he would save it for Feith. :)

[spag68]

3. Feith

Methinks he is angeling for a place on the farm in Paraguay.

[Swamp Rat]

4. Douglas DoD Feith?!?!

He's one of the mass murderers who planned the goddamn thing! :eyes:

Douglas Feith

"Douglas Feith is a former Pentagon official closely associated with the neoconservative political faction who has been investigated for allegedly distorting prewar intelligence on Iraq. Feith served as the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, the number three position at the Pentagon, from July 2001 to August 2005. In May 2006, Georgetown University hired him to teach a course on the Bush administration's strategy in the war on terror.

Feith's resignation from the Department of Defense sparked widespread speculation among observers that he was pressured to leave because of a number of then-ongoing investigations related to the administration's efforts to bolster support for the Iraq War. As Juan Cole, history professor at the University of Michigan and author of the widely read blog Informed Comment (JuanCole.com) wrote in January 2005, when Feith announced his resignation:

"Feith has been questioned by the FBI in relation to the passing by one of his employees of confidential Pentagon documents to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), which in turn passed them to the Israeli Embassy. The Senate Intelligence Committee is also investigating Feith. There seems little doubt that he operated in the Pentagon in such a way as to produce false and misleading 'intelligence,' that he created an entirely false impression of Iraqi weapons capabilities and ties to al-Qaida, and that he is among the chief facilitators of the U.S. war in Iraq. Feith is clearly resigning ahead of the possible breaking of major scandals concerning his tenure at the Department of Defense, which is among the more disgraceful cases of the misleading of the American people in American history."

Although Feith was not formally charged in connection to his work at the Pentagon, his work has been repeatedly investigated, and official reports have linked him to efforts to push faulty evidence to justify the war. One investigation, by the Department of Defense's inspector general (IG), was set up to assess whether the Office of Special Plans (OSP), a specialized outfit set up by Feith within the Pentagon to scrutinize intelligence on Iraq, deliberately skewed information about the regime of Saddam Hussein (New York Times, May 25, 2006)."

(snip)

A fervent supporter of Saddam Hussein's ouster years before terrorists struck on 9/11, Feith was one of a group of high profile neoconservatives and foreign policy hawks who signed a 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton calling for a "comprehensive political and military strategy for bringing down Saddam and his regime." Among the signatories to the letter, which was produced by the Project for the New American Century, were several people who would later be tagged to serve in the first administration of George W. Bush, including Feith, Perle, Donald Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, Peter Rodman, John Bolton, and Dov Zakheim.

(snip)

much much more here:
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1146.html

[sendero]

5. Tommy Franks says...

..Described by General Tommy Franks as either "the dumbest fucking guy on the planet" (according to Franks' autobiography) or "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the Earth" (according to Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack)

Either description will do.

[Octafish]

8. Pegged Feith to a 'T.'

Warmongering turd.

[Jacobin]

10. That pretty much says it all right there

[biscotti]

6. creepy dark little freak

the New Yorker had an insightful article on the delusional Mr Feith in 2005. http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/05/09/050509fa_fact

[Arctic Dave]

7. Why doesn't this MF'er go die a long, long, painful death. n/t

[UTUSN]

9. "attacks war plan" - meaning he didn't get AS MUCH of the MUCH MORE he wanted. A-hole!1 n/t

[elizfeelinggreat]

11. the money quote

"According to the Post, Mr Feith claims that US President George W Bush told a National Security Council meeting "war is inevitable" weeks before a team of UN weapons inspectors, headed by Hans Blix, had made their final report on Saddam Hussein's weapons capabilities."

Put him under oath.

I don't care how much of a scumbag he is, put his hand on his bible and make him tell Congress how Bush lied us into war.

The fact that they're turning on each other will mean more and more information hits the airways. Bring it on ;)

[WinkyDink]

12. "seriously mismanaging the invasion and occupation"?!?! IT IS A WAR CRIME!

There is NO GOOD "managing"!

It's like saying Ted Bundy "mismanaged" his serial killing because he got caught!

[Supersedeas]

13. anticipate more of this--Bush legacy apologists will blame Powell for the war

[spanone]

14. covering his sorry ass

[Martin Eden]

15. Feith is a neocon propagandist ...

... and a major perpetrator of the lies that took us to war.

No doubt his book is as far detached from reality as everything else he foisted on this country.

[MisterP]

16. "seriously mismanaging the invasion and occupation"

so it's only a boo-boo, not a blood-soaked war crime
a.k.a. a "Jane Harman 'Critique'"

[Thickasabrick]

17. For a fantastic read, go to WaPo's comment section of their article about

Feith's book. I learned so much stuff about this little weasel....just from the comments section!!!

Here is the link:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/03/08/AR2008030802724_Comments.html

There are 28 pages of them - to start at the beginning, go to the last page.

[goforit]

19. Hey watada da ya know Dougie???......Still looking fa dar WMD's?