[Mb-civic] Ray McGovern: Where to Look for Answers on Corrupted Intelligence

[Mike Blaxill]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112005Z.shtml

Where to Look for Answers on Corrupted
Intelligence
    By Ray McGovern
    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Sunday 20 November 2005

    While it is altogether appropriate for
Congress's attention to be riveted on the future
and, specifically, on how to end the disaster in
Iraq, we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for
Sanity (VIPS) continue to be asked about the past
and how the George W. Bush administration was
able to create/corrupt intelligence to convey a
false picture of the need for war on Iraq in the
first place.

    Renewed, if short-lived, interest in this
issue can be traced to Senator Harry Reid's
demand on November 1 that Pat Roberts, chair of
the Senate Intelligence Committee, make good on
his promise to complete his investigation into
this issue (the so-called "Phase 2" study that
Democratic senator Jay Rockefeller acquiesced in
postponing until after last year's election).

    Don't hold your breath. Roberts is still
diddling Rockefeller, who, as ranking Democrat on
Roberts's committee, has a painful propensity for
letting himself be outmaneuvered. The two are
still far from agreement on how to proceed, and
Roberts seems likely to use another pending study
to delay still further the completion of "Phase
2."

    Congressional sources disclosed Thursday that
the Department of Defense Inspector General has
agreed to review the pre-war intelligence
activities of former defense undersecretary
Douglas Feith, a main architect of the war on
Iraq. The IG investigation could take at least
six months, say defense officials. Indeed, the
study is not yet under way, since the IG is
"still discussing it with the Roberts committee
staff," according to Defense Department spokesman
Bryan Whitman.

    For the gullible, here's a new promise from
Pat Roberts: "We're going to try to expedite it
[the IG study on Feith] as much as possible ...
The IG knows we are very eager to get this done
but he wants to get it done right."

    Right.

    Not that it really matters. Attempting to get
an apolitical study out of Roberts's committee
would be a fool's errand, even if Rockefeller had
more backbone. Pat Roberts, you may recall,
rejected as "inappropriate" Rockefeller's
suggestion last year that the committee ask the
FBI to look into who manufactured the (in)famous
forgery about Iraq seeking uranium in Niger.

    Don't despair. We in VIPS have been hard at
work on this issue since well before the war.
Indeed, it was/is our raison d'être.

    Where to look for the answers? Try the just
published "Neo-CONNED Again!" a collection of
essays and interviews by and with VIPS and other
professionals. My colleague Col. W. Patrick Lang,
USA (ret) and I have authored chapters devoted
specifically to how intelligence was corrupted to
"justify" an unjustifiable war - or, in the words
of the Downing Street Minutes, how "intelligence
and facts were being fixed around the policy."

    Pat's article, "Drinking the Kool-Aid: Making
the Case for War with Compromised Integrity and
Intelligence," was originally published in the
summer 2004 Middle East Policy Journal. Mine is
titled "Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the
President." The text is posted here.

    But for a fuller picture on the Iraq
misadventure, you may wish to obtain the book
itself. For it also contains a wealth of insight
from the likes of Robert Fisk, Noam Chomsky,
Naomi Klein, Karen Kwiatkowski, Jeffrey Record,
Tom Engelhardt, Sam Gardiner, Michael Ratner and
many others.

    The experience of the past few years has
shown that, although Pat Roberts prides himself
on being a US Marine, waiting for him to deliver
on his promises is like waiting for Godot. (See
"Semper Fraud, Senator Roberts.") There, fellow
Marine (and VIPS member) Scott Ritter offers
unique insight into Pat Roberts, including his
foot-dragging on the "Phase 2" investigation.

    Ray McGovern works for Tell the Word, the
publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the
Saviour in Washington, DC. He was an analyst at
CIA for 27 years, and is on the Steering Group of VIPS.