The Rendon Group: Proof The Administration Manipulated Intelligence
The Rendon Group: Proof The Administration Manipulated Intelligence
From “Saddam Hussein’s Development of Weapons of Mass Destruction” [White House website]:
In 2001, an Iraqi defector, Adnan Ihsan Saeed al-Haideri, said he had visited twenty secret facilities for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. … Mr. Saeed said Iraq used companies to purchase equipment with the blessing of the United Nations - and then secretly used the equipment for their weapons programs.
None of al-Haideri’s claims were true. Today’s Rolling Stone reveals that the administration’s use of al-Haideri’s lies to justify the Iraq war were “the product of a clandestine operation…that had been set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon for the express purpose of selling a war.”
At the center of this operation was John Rendon and The Rendon Group, “a controversial, secretive firm that has been criticized as ineffective and too expensive,” paid more than $56 million by the government since the 9/11 attacks. (Taxpayers are paying Rendon himself $311.26/hour.)
The Rendon Group personally set up the Iraqi National Congress and helped install Ahmad Chalabi as leader, whose main goal — “pressure the United States to attack Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein” — Rendon helped facilitate. Pentagon documents show that Rendon has the highest level of government clearance (above Top Secret), which helped it with its INC work — “a worldwide media blitz designed to turn Hussein…into the greatest threat to world peace.”
While the White House continues to insist it did not manipulate intelligence before the Iraq war, it sure seems that it hired John Rendon and his group to do just that.
Sort Comments By: Top Rated | Date
83 Responses to “The Rendon Group: Proof The Administration Manipulated Intelligence”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll
Wait a minute.
November 17th, 2005 at 5:35 pmThe CIA and Pentagon are not the same thing.
That the Pentagon would do this is not a great surprize,
but the CIA was often at odds with the neo-convicts.
Does "set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon"
make sense?
You're right, it sounds weird, but...you've got (at the time) Tenet and Rummy, so anything's possible!
November 17th, 2005 at 5:41 pm"Today’s Rolling Stone reveals..."
Wha? Has a music magazine stepped in to sub for our corrupt mainstream media?
November 17th, 2005 at 5:41 pmSomeone has to do it SuperEdo. Rolling Stone is legendary. I hope they have their facts straight on this.
This could be the proverbial "nail in the coffin".
November 17th, 2005 at 5:45 pmHey "." those pieces are still falling into place? These must not be the pieces you were talking about. Too bad. Looks like we have more pieces than you guys do. Ahhh, too bad. Your pieces smell kind of rotten too. Might want to get rid of your pieces and start over with new ones.
November 17th, 2005 at 5:46 pmYou Know What To Do... It's All Here...
Written Years Ago...
WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS
.
IT BECOMES NECESSARY for the PEOPLE of the United States
TO ALTER or ABOLISH the United States Government
as it exists in the year…
2001 / 02 / 03 / 04 / 05 / 06
.
Using the Authority, Law, and Intentions of the Constitution
and the Declaration of Independence.
.
And Now the People Step Forward
and Charge High Treason,
and Show that Democracy in its roots today,
.
Is Corrupt.
.
And that the Constitution has been Altered and Betrayed
in Favor of…
A Small Group of Millionaires,
.
Over Another...
the Governed,
.
the People of the United States.
.
And that the Election Process is UN-fair
and has been Overwhelmed
and Monopolized
by Millionaires
and their millions of dollars
.
BU$H = TREASON … Continued at
…
http://www.RogerART.com
.
SEE on left… LINK ( 2 ) to
( Re-Written ) Declaration of Independence
SEE ALL ( these words in ) 15 + PAINTINGS at…
http://www.rogerart.com/20_PATRIOT%20DEMOCRACY.htm
November 17th, 2005 at 5:46 pmDelicious.
November 17th, 2005 at 5:55 pmMaybe this Rendon Group operates like the Swift Boat Veterans: just out of reach of the laws regarding conflicts of interest; and worlds beyond recognition by the inept MSM and apathetic Congress. (Yet, somehow, we lowly surfs get it.)
New on EWM: “Society of Co-opted Journalists Presents Inaugural Judy Miller Award to Bob Woodwardâ€
November 17th, 2005 at 5:58 pmImpeachment is an easier course than anarchy ,when the moderate republicans and democrats SCREAM for impeachment , may be and maybe we will get rid of this unscrupulous admnistration of scoundrels and carpet baggers.
November 17th, 2005 at 6:10 pmit oughta be clear by now that this administration, cheney in particular, is not going to suddenly develop an honest streak... they are going to stick to their lies no matter what... they've perfected this game over 5 years under the tutelage of the satanic master, karl... it's worked perfectly well so why should they change now...? even this latest revelation will only produce more of the same - bald-faced lying, accusations of irresponsibility, etc, etc., ad nauseam...
November 17th, 2005 at 6:20 pmWe have all these mounting evidence that shows there must have been some manipulation. And yet, nothing will be done about it and nothing can be done about it.
They have been denying it and will continue to deny it. There are no Congressmen or Senators who are willing to investigate any wrongdoing.
I hate them all....Republicans, Democrats, Independents
November 17th, 2005 at 6:24 pmUghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!
I confess I'm a little suspicious of some of the claims made here.
The DD & the CIA are/were paying for this group? They might have funded different studies and projects but...
also, the CIA and the DD pushed the group? Well, I can see subgroups within both doing that but the main groups...no, they have been at odds about Iraq. Particularly the CIA as they didn't like Ahmad Chalabi and thought he was a liar. Now, I can fully see Rove & the Republicans doing this. Totally.
But i do like Rolling Stone. But I don't usually read it for it's politics (but I do read it's politics). Same as Playboy. I don't peruse it for it's articles, but I do read it's articles when I look one over (I look at the pictures too. I ain't dead yet!)
November 17th, 2005 at 6:25 pmRead the article. It is worse than the headline indicates. The US government basically hired and financed al-Haideiri and used reporters who were secretly on their payroll to spread his fabrications across the US and world media despite the fact they already knew the info was false. The administration then proceeded to repeat that lie at every opportunity. If this doesn't constitute fabricating intelligence and mis-leading the American public, I don't know what does.
November 17th, 2005 at 6:28 pmIf true, the criminality of this administration is almost beyond conception.
November 17th, 2005 at 6:29 pmNext the War Fabrications will be labeled 'National Security'
November 17th, 2005 at 6:39 pmin the 'Noble Lie' directory.
The arabic Armstrong Williams. Yet more nazi/fascist propaganda paid for by your tax dollars! All the while poor black people are allowed to drown. Republican priorities clearly show these people are schizophrenic and clinically certifiable!
November 17th, 2005 at 6:40 pm#12 - Courtney, definitely interesting perspective. I agree that some of this is hard to swallow, but from the Rolling Stone article (and the Chicago Tribune one), it does seem like it is given contracts for projects. If you look at the Chicago Tribune story (I think that's where it was), the federal government gives Rendon a "menu" of tasks to complete, and Rendon just has to choose which ones to complete.
The Pentagon and CIA projects may have been separate. Think Chalabi was just a Pentagon project.
November 17th, 2005 at 6:54 pmA quote from Rendon (Antiwar site)
"'Did you ever stop to wonder,' Rendon asked, 'how the people of Kuwait City, after being held hostage for seven long and painful months, were able to get hand-held American, and for that matter, the flags of other coalition countries?' He paused for effect. 'Well, you now know the answer. That was one of my jobs then.'"
Another bean has fallen out of the Whole Enchilada.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:06 pmStudent Paid to Imitate Saddam
http://www.casi.org.uk/discuss/2002/msg02067.html
Rendon gave the group its name and somehow canoodled $12 million of covert CIA funding for the INC between 1992 and 1996. Chalabi, a Rendon protégé, was appointed to head the group in October of 1992.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hmmm
Yet,
Finally, let's note again John Rendon's role in the ascent of Ahmed Chalabi and
the INC: "'Were it not for Rendon,' a State Department official tells the
[Village] Voice, 'the Chalabi group wouldn't even be on the map.'" Below, the
Village Voice interviews a grad student to whom Rendon paid $3K/month to imitate
Saddam Hussein in faux radio broadcasts. [3]
Regards,
Drew Hamre
Golden Valley, MN USA
=== [1]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A40750-2002Nov11?language=printer
Iraqi Exile Groups' Efforts Stalled by Intense Rivalries
Power Struggle Emerges Over Plan for Post-Hussein Era; Key Faction Also Feuding
With U.S. on Funds
By Daniel Williams
Washington Post Foreign Service
Tuesday, November 12, 2002; Page A15
ROME, Nov. 11 -- Three months after the Bush administration encouraged them to
unite and create a common political platform for the future of their country,
Iraq's exile factions are locked in an ethnic, religious and political power
struggle.
Potentially important players are fighting tenaciously over rival agendas. One
November 17th, 2005 at 7:16 pmof the major factions, the Iraqi National Congress (INC), is also feuding with
the State Department over $8 million in funding for propaganda, humanitarian and
other programs it is supposed to oversee, State Department officials said. A
much-heralded INC "information-gathering" operation inside Iraq has yet to get
off the ground, the officials said, because of uncertainty in the Bush
administration about the INC's ability to get and relay useful intelligence, as
well as competing views within the Washington bureaucracy.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Anyway the Funding comes from the State Department for Rendons "work"
and that We KNOW is loaded With AEI Folks. --AJ
Another firm hired to do PR for the INC was Burson-Marsteller.
The world's fifth largest PR company (Source: Council of PR Firms, 2002). According to a 2004 profile in The Hill, a Washington, DC newspaper, "This multinational PR behemoth has an active public-affairs practice led by Richard Mintz, who ran the media shop at the Department of Transportation during the Clinton administration. He also served as staff director for Hillary Clinton during the 1992 campaign.
Blame the republicans, but the previous administration isn't lilly white in this deal. Clinton was also lying about Iraq's WMD.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:24 pm#19 and #20 - Great oppo. Hadn't seen all those stories.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:26 pmDo when finger bang says the previous admin wasn't lilly white. Absolutly true. No admin has ever been lilly white. Too bad this admin has gone so far as to turn America Red with embarresment.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:37 pmOops, ignore the "Do when" in my previous post.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:37 pmIts time to Start putting the names together and send them to O'Liely so he can post the Un-patriotic ones.
DOnt see Repubs or Democrats here to blame
Lets call em what they are
Dubious, Corporate, Greedy, Lying, Idealogues, and Facist Low lifes with Ulterior Motives in opposition to the People of America.
November 17th, 2005 at 7:44 pmIs this really true? How come no other sites have picked this story up?
In my mind, if this report can be verified, the administration is finished. Done. Impeached, Indicted, the whole nine yards. Fitzmas is an interesting footnote.
November 17th, 2005 at 8:14 pmRendon was also a major player in the CIA's effort to encourage the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In May 1991, then-President George Bush, Sr. signed a presidential finding directing the CIA to create the conditions for Hussein's removal. The hope was that members of the Iraqi military would turn on Hussein and stage a military coup. The CIA did not have the mechanisms in place to make that happen, so they hired the Rendon Group to run a covert anti-Saddam propaganda campaign. Rendon's postwar work involved producing videos and radio skits ridiculing Saddam Hussein, a traveling photo exhibit of Iraqi atrocities, and radio scripts calling on Iraqi army officers to defect.
A February 1998 report by Peter Jennings cited records obtained by ABC News which showed that the Rendon Group spent more than $23 million dollars in the first year of its contract with the CIA. It worked closely with the Iraqi National Congress (INC), an opposition coalition of 19 Iraqi and Kurdish organizations whose main tasks were to "gather information, distribute propaganda and recruit dissidents." According to ABC, Rendon came up with the name for the Iraqi National Congress and channeled $12 million of covert CIA funding to it between 1992 and 1996.
November 17th, 2005 at 8:27 pmI had questions after reading the initial shortened thread here, but after reading the article in R.S. I think it fits. The CIA dropped Rendon at the same time they lost confidence in Chalabi, and that's when the Pentagon picked him up.
November 17th, 2005 at 8:30 pmLet's see if the MSM picks up on this.
Must of the Info is already out there.
But it was a Bush Sr. 'Finding' that initiated the PR group.
Sr. dropped the Ball, Cllinton played with it, and Jr Ran with it
Via Help of the PNAC Neo-cons,AEI, and State Department.
Back to today. --AJ
November 17th, 2005 at 8:33 pmI'm always a bit perplexed when I read posts from folks that are surprised at the depths of deception and crime that this administration has plumbed. It's an indication that the community of citizens that are getting online and searching for the truth about America's current plight is growing all the time....and that is encouraging. I know some of us have been screaming about the Bush crime family from the word go and for those that may be just digging in and discovering the gory details recently, welcome to the party...you've got a lot of catching up to do.
This administration has no rival in American history as far as the evil that it has perpetrated. You've got to start drawing comparisons to some of the darker figures in world history if you want to assign this group its rightful place. It's a disgrace and I used to be heartbroken, then I was angry and now I'm focused on how we recover and rebuild, because these as*holes are finished. The GOP wingnuts are imploding and unless we're attacked and martial law is declared we're getting close to paydirt (I'm biting my tongue).
November 17th, 2005 at 8:54 pmFrom this post:
I could add to this using my own words but General Smedley Butler, of my own Marine Corps - a man who was the most decorated soldier in an American uniform at the time, who was the commander of the Marine Corps school, says it better than I can:
November 17th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
#29,Jay,
November 17th, 2005 at 9:49 pmI have always been suspicious of Bush, questioned his motives, his connections, and always those suspicions have been validated. But what continues to astound me is, as you put it, the depths to which these guys have plumbed to achieve their goals. It's hard to come to grips with the fact that people who are intrinsically evil as this group have coalesced into a formidable cabal right here in America.
Notice in the story that Rendon denies having any involvement with al-Haideri? How can he? The evidence is huge. It's like Bush saying he had nothing to do with the Iraq war.
November 17th, 2005 at 9:51 pmHAHA -- Looks like he couldn't help taking a shot at the hand that feeds him.
Under contract to the CIA, Rendon was charged with helping to create a dissident force with the avowed purpose of violently overthrowing the entire Iraqi government. It is an undertaking that Rendon still considers too classified to discuss. "That's where we're wandering into places I'm not going to talk about," he says. "If you take an oath, it should mean something."
November 17th, 2005 at 9:52 pmThis should be up on Huff Po as well. The Repubs are in disarray right now, there's a revolt among them in the House. We have to hit them with this evidence and hit them hard. Make it something for families to talk about over Thanksgiving. This can end the Bush Lied debate.
November 17th, 2005 at 9:58 pmMarie #31,
One thing I'm thankful for is the blogosphere, you good people have kept me sane throughout the ordeal of BushCo. It's been good to have a place to vent and exchange ideas...you might even call it democratic :)
November 17th, 2005 at 10:48 pmMuch, much more info on Rendon Group at http://www.sourcewatch.org
Type "Rendon Group" in the search engine there.
November 17th, 2005 at 10:58 pm#29 Jay, I too am astonished even though I knew Bushie comes from a long line of criminals.
I just never thought in a million years this (fascism/nazism) could happen in America.
We're taking America back and there's absolutely nothing the neocons can do about it.
votetoimpeach.org
November 17th, 2005 at 11:45 pm~~VANNity and CULLmes~~
~Dim&Dimmer~
11.17.5
Having the misfortune of placing soul within dreaded bermuda triangulation of 'fair and balanced' News with intent of hearing the General speak. Wesley, suddenly, horrid skreeching and scraping sounds were soon vying for attention.
Indeed, none other than the Canine Interruptus "Faux" species, was dutifully howling at its dwindling pack, beckoning return to land of Bias. The pack distanced itself, the Fox had cried one too many Wolfs.
-Bill!, --Hillary!,
-Democrat,
--Clinton,
--Liberals!
time and again,
Clinton! Democrats!
--Democrats!
~~VANNity & CULLmes~~
Like Fingernails on a Chalkboard...
...Only Harder to Look at.
~Click~
November 18th, 2005 at 12:19 amNo Mas Faux.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
tried to watch it ,honestly. too much interruption, overtalk,
nothing gained by watching, except frustration.
like watching jerry springer,,Hit Him!
(just what Faux wants)
Fitting Quote
Ty Lesly =)
November 18th, 2005 at 12:24 amAnd the Bush administration continues to mislead when talking about how they mislead the public, back in 2003.
ASSERTION: "critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community's judgments related to Iraq's weapons programs."
CONTEXT: "(...)CIA review panel found that agency analysts were subjected to "steady and heavy" requests from administration officials for evidence of links between Iraq and al-Qaida(...)"
ASSERTION: "more than a hundred Democrats in the House and the Senate - who had access to the same intelligence - voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power."
CONTEXT: "This isn't true. "
ASSERTION: "Congress, in 1998 authorized, in fact, the use of force based on that intelligence(...)"
CONTEXT: "Congress did pass the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998(...)[b]ut it didn't authorize the use of U.S. force against Iraq."
In challenging war's critics, administration tinkers with truth
November 18th, 2005 at 12:52 amhttp://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13185357.htm
Proof the administration manipulated intelligence?
There's a phrase that I've repeatedly used in recent days as I've heard the administration profusely denying this and that, from allegations of torture and abuse of detainees to an ever-increasing outcry that the administration misrepresented the in...
November 18th, 2005 at 6:22 amWow. I can't believe we're paying Rendon so much. Our tax dollars -- we should get to know what he's doing!
November 18th, 2005 at 7:37 amSo was it just an oversight that you neglect to mention that,"...The Rendon Group personally set up the Iraqi National Congress and helped install Ahmad Chalabi as leader..." ocurred during the Clinton administration?
That it was the Clinton administration that - per the provisions of the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - started funneling money to the INC?
That Clinton designated Chalabi and the INC as the "go-to guys" of the Iraqi resistance?
That this was all in place BEFORE GWB took office?
Or are you just counting on the ignorance / naivete of your lefty audience to not have those inconvenient facts come forth?
From this New Yorker article:
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/040607fa_fact1_c
"A year later, in August, 1996, a second disaster befell Chalabi. One of the Kurdish factions within the I.N.C. invited Saddam Hussein into Kurdistan, to crush a rival faction that was allied with Chalabi. Forty thousand Iraqi soldiers and three hundred tanks crossed into Kurdish territory—a flagrant violation of U.S. strictures against Saddam’s entering Kurdistan. The Clinton Administration failed to react immediately, and Saddam’s forces captured, tortured, and slaughtered hundreds of Chalabi’s supporters. The U.S. government eventually evacuated seven thousand supporters.
Francis Brooke told me that, when he heard the news, “I was sick for a week, just throwing up.†He had been involved in an exchange of letters between Chalabi and Vice-President Al Gore, in which Gore promised to protect the democratic resistance in northern Iraq."
Did you get that? The "exchange of letters between Chalabi and Vice-President Al Gore, in which Gore PROMISED to protect the democratic resistance in northern Iraq..."?
IOW, Gore lied, people died.
November 18th, 2005 at 7:49 amHear about the mindset in the intelligence community to cherry pick intelligence to pick agenda:
November 18th, 2005 at 8:42 amhttp://video.csupomona.edu/HotTalk/KarenKwiatkowski-245.asx (28 min)
Karen is a retired employee working very close to the office of special plans.
It is to bad we don't have a say on how our tax payers money is spent. I am so sick and tried of how this government pisses our money away on thing that don't help the American people.
November 18th, 2005 at 9:09 am#42 - Sure, Rendon put in Chalabi and the INC during the a previous administration. But that's not the issue.
At issue is the work Rendon was doing for the Pentagon in PUSHING false intelligence to JUSTIFY the war.
Forget Chalabi. Focus on the importance stuff.
November 18th, 2005 at 9:37 am"At issue is the work Rendon was doing for the Pentagon in PUSHING false intelligence to JUSTIFY the war. "
And this just started when GWB was inaugurated? It wasn't going on at all prior to 1/20/2001?
Right.....
November 18th, 2005 at 10:23 am[...] Think Progress: From “Saddam Hussein’s Development of Weapons of Mass Destruction†[White House website]: [...]
November 18th, 2005 at 11:00 amI don't ever remember a use of intelligence for a push to war before 1/20/2001, that's entirely a post 2000 problem and a direct result of republican failures.
Tomaig shows why republicans are always wrong, they're too stupid to be able to read or deconstruct sentences.
November 18th, 2005 at 1:28 pmNone of al-Haideri’s claims were true. Today’s Rolling Stone reveals that the administration’s use of al-Haideri’s lies to justify the Iraq war were “the product of a clandestine operation…that had been set up and funded by the CIA and the Pentagon for the express purpose of selling a war.â€
The Rolling Stone reveals the TRUTH? Heheheheheh...until we get that Treason and Sedition Act reinstated anybody can say anything during a war and get away with it. This of course has nothing to do with the vote that is on in congress whether or not to pull out of Iraq. There's your big story folks. I wonder why the Rolling Stone wasn't on top of that one?
November 18th, 2005 at 4:23 pmhttp://apnews.myway.com/article/20051118/D8DV3NHG7.html
MizzWrong,
The truth is revealed to you daily, but to recognize it requires reading comprehension and a rational brain - neither of which you possess. It's why you're a racist, a bigot, a hatemonger and a terrorist.
November 18th, 2005 at 6:06 pm41% of Military Jobs are Currently Unfilled, MizzWrong, go sign up. You’ve clearly demostrated you have no value either on this blog, or in this country, so go do something useful for a change with your life…
REPUBLICANS ARE HYPOCRITES WHO HATE THE MILITARY AND HATE AMERICA!
November 18th, 2005 at 6:07 pmIn answer to the very first comment, which asked how could the CIA and the Pentagon, who are known or supposed to have been at odds, both worked with The Rendon Group. The answer is a few-fold.
1) Rendon worked first with the CIA on the CIA's mission to destabilize the Iraqi regime. This was a 1990s thing. The CIA eventually had enough of Rendon's borderline competence and unreliability.
2) So when 2001 came rolling around, the Pentagon just picked up where the CIA had left off and tasked Rendon with even more egregiously dishonest (and treasonous) work, this time for Rumsfeld and the Office of Special Plans in their sleight-of-hand manipulation of the nation to war.
3) And even though the CIA and the Pentagon are sometimes at odds about some things, they are both very big organizations with lots of different departments and factions. So often left hands don't know what right hands are doing and vice versa, in both bureaucracies.
Love,
November 20th, 2005 at 11:17 pmThe News Nag
Sounds about right! How many times have we won, lost, or otherwise completed this stupid war... Iraq?
...Just to have the White House change the reason we had to invade Iraq in the middle of Mission-Afaghani, to some other impossible-to-acheive mission, like stability, or a non-islamic democracy?
The "brutal-dictator, w/ mass-graves, & his WMD-rumors" were what made the place so stable for ten years. Nobody blew stuff up -- like now -- because they were scared-of-saddam. He was secular, and kept the fanatics outside the BORDERS. We can't control borders-for-shyit! And they're not scared of us... So it's like fuggin' Tay'rist Club-Med, they go there to kill our Soldiers for fun... Like we'd go to Las Vegas for a weekend. Or hunting in the mountains! Bush is a DISASTER, a DRUNK, and a Dipshit! Sorry(RANT), but thanx for the forum.
ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE... "The publication of record."
November 21st, 2005 at 12:43 amPoor repubs. After 40 years of planning for the conservative utopia, they've found themselves in bed with the very devil having unsafe sex.
Morons. If its too good to be true, it probably is.
The light is shining in all the dark corners and the roaches are scattering.
Hpaay Thanksgiving everyone. The times they are a' changin'.
November 21st, 2005 at 5:59 amIsn't there a ton of evidence already? We just need to ensure that Cheney is impeached first! http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/20/torture/index.html
November 21st, 2005 at 8:17 amFormer Tom Daschle, senate minority leader of the democratic party in his speech during the Iraq war debate in 2003 brought up in that speech that there was concern about the intelligence being wrong at that time. C-span is airing this speech this week of November 20, 2005. Very enlightening because it shows that Congress was aware at that time there was something wrong with the intelligence and then yet many voted for the war anyway.
November 21st, 2005 at 9:13 amDoes anyone remember in the lead up to the first gulf war in 1990 that there were senate hearings on Iraq'a invasion of Kuwait? Does anyone remember the impassioned testimony of a young kuwait woman who supposedly was witness to Iraq soldiers invading Kuwait maternity hospitals and throwing premature babys out of incubaters in order to loot them? Turned out the story was phony,and the "witness" was a phony and actually the daughter of the Kuwait ambassador to the U.S. and her "testimony was a put up job by an American public relations company. In short, Bush senior propaganda paid for by taxpayer dollars. It is an old story. In order to get a reluctant America enthusiastic about entering World War One the administration was spinning graphic tales of German atrocities against Belgian civilians. The most effective one,designed to inflame the anger of American women who were most opposed to the war.told tales of "bestial Huns" throwing Belgian babys in the air and bayoneting them for practice. Dr.Goebbles lives!
November 21st, 2005 at 9:15 amTRG rebuts the Rolling Stone article:
http://www.rendon.com/letter.php
Two points:
1) Civilians with secret and above clearance are forbidden to reveal the existence of their clearance. TRG's debunking of Bamford's assertions is in line with this.
2) CIA, DIA and NSA contractors often subcontract through shell corporations, to give the appearance of no involvement. The same can be probably said about TRG's disclaimers of involvement with a variety of groups, such as Citizens for a Free Kuwait. It was most likely set up through a subcontractor or a shell corporation owned by another group or individual.
"Plausible Deniability" is the operative phrase in secret government operations. There will be no admission of culpability or truth.
November 21st, 2005 at 1:31 pmWMD? A medium sized lie. What about The Really Big Lie that everyone seems to be overlooking. Astounding! Impossible to believe but it is true.
November 21st, 2005 at 3:29 pmhttp://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html
There has been a lot of talk about Hillary running for
president. But the problem is the Clinton Admin-
istration put in NAFTA and trade with Communist China.
As a result millions of Americans lost their union,
good paying, good benefit blue and white collar jobs.
And Americans are being forced to buy low quality
Communist China good and can't even find USA goods
to buy. One way trade agreement. And with Hillary's
legal background cannot claim ignorance.
Fourth generation Democrat no longer and never trust
November 21st, 2005 at 3:37 pmthe Democratic Paty again for voting with and being
partners with bush and republicans against the people
who voted for them. Just like clinton/gore stabbed the
workers and unions who voted for them in the back with
NAFTA.
That's one. We still have some other things to find out. Who were the supposed Iraqi Generals making those calls that were taped and presented by Powell before the UN? Who forged the Niger documents? These are important questions, and I think, in all likelihood, more important than Valerie Plame's identity leak.
By the way, James Bamford wrote this article for Rolling Stone, and he is a security issues author. He wrote two books that I have read. The Puzzle Palace was a pretty dry, but thorough, history of the NSA. Body of Secrets was far more exciting, and covered post-WWII intelligence in general.
November 21st, 2005 at 4:49 pmIt would be a really good idea to go read the article called "The Man Who Sold The War" by James Bamford either in the Rolling Stone or reproduced in truthout.com yesterday or the day before. It is quite a revelation and seems to be well researched. It puts the lie to Bush's claim that he started the war because of poor intelligence.
November 21st, 2005 at 5:04 pmThis is the smoking gun of the Iraq invasion. Rendon and his band of merry men. Since the Bush administration is exactly right when they say they did not manipulate facts to justify war ...someone did it for them.. the CIA and FBI were influenced by this and if so this scandal can be the greatest of all time.. greater than Watergate and great enough to put people behind bars if the truth is ever found under the cloak of secrecy throughout this eadministration and those protecting it ...
November 21st, 2005 at 6:26 pmOff topic: Che-ney answered all his critics today: "it is morally reprehensible (that word has gotten mileage lately) to even think that the president of the United States would fabricate intelligence in order to go to war with Iraq, it is utterly false...." Well, I'll be damned! I did not realise how wrong we all were! And I for one, will be sending a cheque to Mr Che-ney to compensate for all the lies and innuendos that we, liberals, are maliciously spreading throughout the globe. I am completely floored by his good intentions and I think we should really, really believe the good man that he really, really, truly is. Shame on us for being seduced by the realities of what is actually going on!
November 21st, 2005 at 6:41 pmAnd now, with Sharon in limbo, the Rendon sayanim are flying blind.
November 21st, 2005 at 7:38 pmSo apparently, $311.26/hr. is the going rate for selling ones soul.
November 21st, 2005 at 7:52 pmWell done!
March 28 2004, Los Angeles Times,
"The now discredited Iraqi defector code-named 'Curveball,' handed over false information to the Bush administration. Only later, U.S. officials said, did the CIA learn that defector was the brother of one of Chalabi's top aides and begin to suspect that he might have been coached by Chalabi to provide false information." [Greg Miller]
February 19 2004, The Daily Telegraph (UK)
Mr Chalabi responed; "We are hero's in error.
.....As far as we're concerned we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important."
To this very minute, the day Saddam was captured Mr Chalabi arrived in Iraq the man know as the prince of darkness Richard Perle has been pumping Chalabi on the media spots as the right man for the job.
Yes, we figured it out in Canada just enough not to get into this corporate GM type war to know it was headed for total bunkurroptcy.
November 21st, 2005 at 9:18 pmLess important than what magazine published this article, is the person who wrote it -- James Bamford. A highly respected author in his field, Bamford already exposed the role of the Rendon Group a year and a half ago in the book: A Pretext for War : 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies,.
From comments by reviewer Robert D. Steele at amazon.com:
"I know Jim Bamford personally, and consider him to be one of the most capable of researchers and most objective of writers on intelligence matters. His deep personal relationships across the U.S. Intelligence Community make him the best possible reporter.
snip
The book is especially strong on the Rendon Group being used to illegally propagandize American citizens with U.S. taxpayer funds, on the abject failure of George Tenet in revitalizing U.S. clandestine operations, on the failure (treated more kindly) of Mike Hayden to bring the National Security Agency into the 21st Century, and on the very unhealthy merger of the U.S. neoconservatives that captured the White House, and well-funded Zionists in both America and Israel who essentially bought themselves an invasion of Iraq--a remarkable coincidence of interests: Jews paying to invade Iraq, Iranians using Chalabi to feed lies to the neo-cons so they would be deceived into thinking Iraq would be a cake-walk, and Bin Laden never daring to dream the entire U.S. population and all arms of government--including a passive media--would "sleep walk" into what this book suggests is one of the dumbest and most costly strategic errors in the national security history of the USA.
November 22nd, 2005 at 5:28 amI don't buy the "Bush at odds with the CIA" routine. The Bushes have been a CIA family for years; the CIA didn't name their new world headquarters after Poppy Bush for nothing.
All part of the disinformation and confusion-mongering so characteristic of the intelligence agency itself, IMHO. Deep cover and special ops don't walk around all day worrying about the honor and rep of the agency, and the CIA has often taken the bullet (in the public's perception) to distract from its real actions and intentions elsewhere, IMHO.
November 22nd, 2005 at 8:27 amJust for fun get pictures of all of Bush's minions and stare at them awhile. Mediocrity of evil, no?
November 22nd, 2005 at 9:34 amhang the liars
November 22nd, 2005 at 9:54 am*Rendon Group Rebuttal, http://www.rendon.com/letter.php, November 18, 2005
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:09 pmbamford's also a bit of crank who can't keep his facts straight.
November 22nd, 2005 at 2:15 pmIF this was a real article, it would be in the NY times but they wouldn't touch it with ten foot pole
The Rendon Group are only the beginning of this story. They were already in place with an existing network of international media people and post-911 their role was expanded. In Clinton's time, the CIA was permitted to run journalists in foreign media, but forbidden to influence domestic media covertly, so the place to look is Fox, CBS, CNN, NY Times etc all of which ran massive and expensive pro-war propaganda to a common script. Money must have changed hands, and each time it did, there must have been an agreement.
November 22nd, 2005 at 7:51 pmEither way America is screwed. If their is another terrorist attack on American soil who will suffer more and benefit less? You will loose your freedoms, you'll all be suspect if you question American authority and Bush will ride the billows of smoke and death into high percentage points once again to call for the take-over of the mid-east. Oh yeah, and the draft will set in.
Muslims in oil nations are just as poor as those in Detroit surrounded by oil money and American corporations and live in tin shack houses of false hopes and dreams. These people have nothing left to loose but the lives of their children to another nazi nightmare.
Who will suffer from all this, Joe average American or some rich jew that sits back and waits for Christians and Muslims to finish each other off so he can buy up what's left of America and sell it off to the highest bidder in Asia.
November 22nd, 2005 at 9:14 pmSo what about the Really Big Lie? And they are getting away with it without anyone noticing, whilst everyone is squabbling over WMD. The beginning of this farce must be recognised for what it is. Planning and using explosives to bring down the WTC, tricking the world into accepting a war supposedly to root out those nasty terrorist. Why is EVERYONE with a few exception ignoring this horror?
November 23rd, 2005 at 2:50 amhttp://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/htm7.html
no proof here my libral friends just conspiracy theories,
November 23rd, 2005 at 11:05 amNaaahhhh... say it ain't so! These are the same guys that said they were going to restore dignity and honesty to the White House. They wouldn't lie.
How many examples do you neocon super followers need that keep popping up more and more practically on a daily basis of the sham of this administration. Lies on top of lies covering for lies. Incompetence at most levels. Cronyism run amok (see previous sentence). Corruption almost beyond belief: indictments, investigations that go all the way to the White House, lobbyists providing illegal gifts and gratuities. Favoritism: The corporations (mainly the CEO's and a few top level administrators), special interests and friends all collect massively while the rest of the approximately 270 million of us are being systematically left to scramble.
I'll put it this way as a warning to wake up. When what was once the largest and most powerful company on the planet is now being reduced to near bankruptcy like General Motors is experiencing right now it does bode well for the rest of American major manufacturing industry. General Motors is in trouble. This could have as direct impact on our economy as any hurricane ever could. Worldwide ramifications. They are already closing several plants and will be terminating tens of thousands of employees by 2008, a little over 2 years from now. If they declare bankruptcy they will dump the entire pension plan. Guess what that means.... thousands of instant poor people too old and no income.
If this can happen to General Motors you can damn well bet there are several others teetering right behind them! This is being cause by a tiny fraction of people consumed by their personal greed and need for more power... the CEO's. Their only contribution to a once proud corporation the world over (GM) has been gross mismanagement and absolutely zero vision for the future.
Totally un-American, totally unpatrotic and totally disgusting. Wake Up!
November 24th, 2005 at 12:18 amSorry, I left out "not" before "bodes well", 3rd paragraph, second sentence.
November 24th, 2005 at 12:21 am"bode".... sheesh. I once again humbly apologize.
November 24th, 2005 at 12:23 amI remember back in 1999 before the chimp took office,there was a group of folks in texas that tried to warn us about Bush.Don't remember the groups name,but its spokeperson came right out and said that if we elect this man to office he will destroy our country in much the same that he tried to destroy Texas.To bad i was the only one watching it seems.
November 25th, 2005 at 3:50 pmSo why do you think your government is making a mall sale mad dash for the oil nations? Like too many American's, the focus is on the prize and those unfortunate enough to fall down will no doubt be stepped on or over never taking their eye's off the wanted item. No one to help get up, they are on their own to try and survive the ones who are way behind and pushing ever harder to get inside.
I'm sorry to say millions of American's are too busy trying to survive just paying the bills to notice the war crimes in Iraq and only want to escape the real woe's of the world with books, porn, video games and TV shows. Only awaking from thier stuper to respond when an attacks are on American soil has occured. Mind you, only for a few day's cause they don't want to miss Survivor Island.
Believe me, more Canadians are paying attention these day's to Bush who's last visit to Canada he made mentioned his fathers "New World Order" again but most people polled in my country decided that there is no freaking way we want to ever sign our country over to what is clearly an inept and mafia ridden American government that kills it's own presidents, [magic bullet] allows soldiers to die in Pearl Harbour and force US citzens during the 9/11 mission to hold hands and jump to their deaths rather then burn to death. Building 7 is your magic bullet and PH rolled into one and somehow they know they're gonna get away with this one too. Why?
November 26th, 2005 at 6:13 pm