Subject: 1. ... and now finally a short review on Iraq (with
James Risen, Ray McGovern, and my own personal records);
2. comment and reply Re: From "8 Essential Lessons We Learned From the Vietnam Antiwar Movement" to Sy Hersh on Saudi Arabia
1. The old guard at the CIA may never recover from what CIA Director George Tenet did to them before Congress went along with the decision to attack Iraq. "The intelligence was wrong; but it was not mistaken; it was out-and-out fraud." The "intelligence" was made-up fraud on the part of George Tenet as part of a little team with those who gave him the idea to do it, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and some of their associates. You may recall that both Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were part of the infamous Project for a New American Century, the 25 totally shameless and greedy* highly influential guys who got together to plan the reshaping of U.S. foreign policy starting in 1997. (Wikipedia link) I am quite sure that you will recall having heard of at least some of the others as well.
Part of the result of that effort, those little closed planning sessions, can be read here (link) or downloaded directly as a pdf file from here (link) (77 pages) to use your familiar pdf reader. I put that out there for you for in case it should somehow disappear from the web otherwise.
Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld of the PNAC seem still to be proud of themselves though, despite not quite yet having gotten control of oil production for American companies in the area known as Iraq as they planned on at least as a secondary goal to building an American Empire to cover the planet. They haven't quite got that one yet either, but they are making huge bucks from us in those efforts besides adding a bit to American employment numbers.**
While you're at it you might want to note at the upper left of the page numbered 51 in the pdf, the suggestion that what was needed to get Americans on board with the program was something like another Pearl Harbor. That report of theirs was finalized a year before 9/11. They managed to use 9/11 to get Americans on board with them. Their fraud after 9/11 certainly helped with that.
See also Project for a New American Century - Startpage Web Search
The book by 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner James Risen, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (2006), sets forth in its first third much about George Tenet, how he went about developing his personal relationships with those guys*** in the years prior to his betrayal of his clear duty as recently appointed CIA Director, and about the internal effects of his fraud on those who had been with the CIA for a long time. To make it short, the dedicated employees and associates of the former CIA could no longer keep their heads up as high as they had previously. They had always thought that the CIA was really special, that their jobs were supposed be to report information with the utmost accuracy, to be above politics and political influence. George Tenet's action lost the CIA its reputation among those who knew and/or learned later of the complete fraud that he helped those guys from the 1997 PNAC to perpetrate on America and upon everyone else who might have believed anything they said about al-Qaeda being involved in Iraq or about any existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Again, those were not mistakes, those were outright made-up frauds that were personally created and led by George Tenet and the other few guys I have mentioned here.
You can easily find on that PNAC Wikipedia page the names of others of the 25 members of the original PNAC who came in as big government officials in the 2000 election. I mention that in passing just because I feel it reasonable to assume that they were all of them in on everything, in on all of the now-known-and-proven big picture re-creations, in on all the frauds that were committed by any of them against law, duty, and us. We do not have to imagine anything. Information just keeps on coming out.
Just to note for those who might care about someone who was not part of the plot, Colin Powell, who was highly respected for truth-telling, was their innocent dupe when he famously spoke at the UN, misleading his listeners unbeknownst to him. He said later that he had been careless in believing what those guys had fed him.
I included a bit about James Risen's book when I wrote you the more major piece a couple of days ago that started with Vietnam and then went on to the essences of our wars in Afghanistan and Yemen and of the killing (murder, really, it now appears) of Saddam Hussein (link).
Now please let 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern fill in what I have been telling. He is utterly clear and concise, I think. He speaks with authority.
"The Phony ‘Bad Intel’ Defense on Iraq: Jeb Bush’s stumbling start to his presidential bid has refocused attention on Official Washington’s favorite excuse for the illegal, aggressive and disastrous war in Iraq" (link) (or printfriendly link), May 16, 2015. Note that the original publication is said to have been at Consortium News.
2. I received a comment to my message of three days ago, "From '8 Essential Lessons We Learned From the Vietnam Antiwar Movement' to Sy Hersh on Saudi Arabia," from one of my few old and wise friends--referring to those few wise people I am privileged to call friend who are in their 80's and have learned a lot. It was much longer than I'm showing you here. I am sharing this part of it as an introduction to the response of mine that follows. There is some repetition. I think repetition is a bit unusual for me. Please forgive me for it just this once.
* "totally shameless and greedy"--I am not sure that those 25 individuals who comprise or comprised the PNAC have described themselves that way, but that is certainly a not unreasonable short version of how they come across.
** Please review here about the benefits to the U.S. economy, just to help keep your head together perhaps.
*** James Risen describes George Tenet as having been pretty much a public and private back-slapping sycophant of Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and especially Mr. G.W. Bush, totally obedient to their influences.
--
Brother Larry/Attorney Scott archives (Larry at Blogspot) "undisclosed recipients" email message archive, no logging in, no public comments
One way or another, raise yourself up I say; do not be afraid. If you are not doing it you can do it. Other people are doing it. We can learn from them, I find.
2. comment and reply Re: From "8 Essential Lessons We Learned From the Vietnam Antiwar Movement" to Sy Hersh on Saudi Arabia
1. The old guard at the CIA may never recover from what CIA Director George Tenet did to them before Congress went along with the decision to attack Iraq. "The intelligence was wrong; but it was not mistaken; it was out-and-out fraud." The "intelligence" was made-up fraud on the part of George Tenet as part of a little team with those who gave him the idea to do it, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and some of their associates. You may recall that both Richard Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld were part of the infamous Project for a New American Century, the 25 totally shameless and greedy* highly influential guys who got together to plan the reshaping of U.S. foreign policy starting in 1997. (Wikipedia link) I am quite sure that you will recall having heard of at least some of the others as well.
Part of the result of that effort, those little closed planning sessions, can be read here (link) or downloaded directly as a pdf file from here (link) (77 pages) to use your familiar pdf reader. I put that out there for you for in case it should somehow disappear from the web otherwise.
Mr. Cheney and Mr. Rumsfeld of the PNAC seem still to be proud of themselves though, despite not quite yet having gotten control of oil production for American companies in the area known as Iraq as they planned on at least as a secondary goal to building an American Empire to cover the planet. They haven't quite got that one yet either, but they are making huge bucks from us in those efforts besides adding a bit to American employment numbers.**
While you're at it you might want to note at the upper left of the page numbered 51 in the pdf, the suggestion that what was needed to get Americans on board with the program was something like another Pearl Harbor. That report of theirs was finalized a year before 9/11. They managed to use 9/11 to get Americans on board with them. Their fraud after 9/11 certainly helped with that.
See also Project for a New American Century - Startpage Web Search
The book by 2006 Pulitzer Prize winner James Risen, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration (2006), sets forth in its first third much about George Tenet, how he went about developing his personal relationships with those guys*** in the years prior to his betrayal of his clear duty as recently appointed CIA Director, and about the internal effects of his fraud on those who had been with the CIA for a long time. To make it short, the dedicated employees and associates of the former CIA could no longer keep their heads up as high as they had previously. They had always thought that the CIA was really special, that their jobs were supposed be to report information with the utmost accuracy, to be above politics and political influence. George Tenet's action lost the CIA its reputation among those who knew and/or learned later of the complete fraud that he helped those guys from the 1997 PNAC to perpetrate on America and upon everyone else who might have believed anything they said about al-Qaeda being involved in Iraq or about any existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Again, those were not mistakes, those were outright made-up frauds that were personally created and led by George Tenet and the other few guys I have mentioned here.
You can easily find on that PNAC Wikipedia page the names of others of the 25 members of the original PNAC who came in as big government officials in the 2000 election. I mention that in passing just because I feel it reasonable to assume that they were all of them in on everything, in on all of the now-known-and-proven big picture re-creations, in on all the frauds that were committed by any of them against law, duty, and us. We do not have to imagine anything. Information just keeps on coming out.
Just to note for those who might care about someone who was not part of the plot, Colin Powell, who was highly respected for truth-telling, was their innocent dupe when he famously spoke at the UN, misleading his listeners unbeknownst to him. He said later that he had been careless in believing what those guys had fed him.
I included a bit about James Risen's book when I wrote you the more major piece a couple of days ago that started with Vietnam and then went on to the essences of our wars in Afghanistan and Yemen and of the killing (murder, really, it now appears) of Saddam Hussein (link).
Now please let 27-year CIA veteran Ray McGovern fill in what I have been telling. He is utterly clear and concise, I think. He speaks with authority.
"The Phony ‘Bad Intel’ Defense on Iraq: Jeb Bush’s stumbling start to his presidential bid has refocused attention on Official Washington’s favorite excuse for the illegal, aggressive and disastrous war in Iraq" (link) (or printfriendly link), May 16, 2015. Note that the original publication is said to have been at Consortium News.
2. I received a comment to my message of three days ago, "From '8 Essential Lessons We Learned From the Vietnam Antiwar Movement' to Sy Hersh on Saudi Arabia," from one of my few old and wise friends--referring to those few wise people I am privileged to call friend who are in their 80's and have learned a lot. It was much longer than I'm showing you here. I am sharing this part of it as an introduction to the response of mine that follows. There is some repetition. I think repetition is a bit unusual for me. Please forgive me for it just this once.
Anon497: ...... WHY did we abandon Afghanistan and start a SECOND war [in Iraq]? Saddam Hussein was doing nothing to initiate this urgency of a second war, and there was a lot to lose in Afghanistan by deserting them - pulling out all we could and leaving a few people in Afghanistan....Larry
LS: Having read carefully what you wrote (about some of the effects of U.S. activities in the Middle East], I think you have things pretty straight based on what I know. The one big thing I would add is that the major U.S. foreign policy leaders had their sights on finding some excuse to attack Iraq specifically even before 9/11. Remember the 25 totally shameless and greedy* highly influential guys who worked on the Project for a New American Century starting in 1997.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_for_the_New_American_Century
Project for a New American Century - Startpage Web Search
You might recall that The Weekly Standard (Wikipedia link) was the main mouthpiece or one of the main mouthpieces for the Project for a New American Century, with William Kristol (Wikipedia link) a big servant to the PNAC guys from 1997 in addition to his role as major author for articles in his paper, with much republication in other outlets that are read mostly by propagandized Republicans, more in some parts of of the U.S. than in others. Please excuse the R-word. The point is not party politics here, really. There are propagandized people in various groupings.
Anyway, that's where attacking Iraq came from. As far as I know that particular choice was mostly about the oil, though American oil companies taking control of the oil did not end up working out as planned.
I guess the fact that the concept of Americans getting control of the oil production in Iraq did not work out as planned is what in retrospect ended up making the whole thing a "big mistake" in the eyes of many.
* "totally shameless and greedy"--I am not sure that those 25 individuals who comprise or comprised the PNAC have described themselves that way, but that is certainly a not unreasonable short version of how they come across.
** Please review here about the benefits to the U.S. economy, just to help keep your head together perhaps.
*** James Risen describes George Tenet as having been pretty much a public and private back-slapping sycophant of Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rumsfeld, and especially Mr. G.W. Bush, totally obedient to their influences.
--
Brother Larry/Attorney Scott archives (Larry at Blogspot) "undisclosed recipients" email message archive, no logging in, no public comments
One way or another, raise yourself up I say; do not be afraid. If you are not doing it you can do it. Other people are doing it. We can learn from them, I find.
