Feith Attacks Pentagon IG For Failing To Interview Staffer Whom White House Silenced
Feith Attacks Pentagon IG For Failing To Interview Staffer Whom White House Silenced
In an op-ed in the Washington Post today, former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith counters Pentagon Inspector General Thomas Gimble’s recent report on his pre-war intelligence gathering activities. The IG report claimed Feith took “inappropriate” actions in advancing conclusions on Iraq/Al Qaeda connections not backed up by the nation’s intelligence agencies. Feith writes in response:
In his Senate testimony, Gimble said his report — and therefore all related claims that my office “manipulated intelligence” — concerned only this single briefing. His whole argument rests on the claim that the briefing was “disseminated” as “an intelligence product” rather than a policy product. … His objections applied solely to the briefing that Hadley and Libby received in September 2002.
Astonishingly, the IG acknowledged that his office had not interviewed either of these officials to ask whether they thought the briefing was an intelligence product.
Feith seems to be suggesting that the Pentagon Inspector General negligently failed to question key players who were involved in his intelligence stovepipe operation. The reality is that the IG tried to question Hadley, but the White House refused to allow it:
GIMBLE: 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.
As part of its continuing inquiry into Feith’s intelligence operation, the Senate Intelligence Committee has “has requested records and interview transcripts from the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s review of the activities of” Feith. If Feith is so “astonished” by the IG’s inability to interview Hadley, perhaps he should call on the White House to allow him to talk to the committee.
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Why does Georgetown University hire willful liars?
http://explore.georgetown.edu/news/?ID=15320
February 14th, 2007 at 3:37 pmShort of nuking Israel, virtually nothing will stop them from taking out Iran and Syria.
Israel is the most powerful nation on earth. It controls all of its own nuclear weapons, all of ours, and all of the politicians in the United States (via blackmail).
Iran is NOT the gravest danger in the Middle East.
Not even close.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:39 pmfrom this article:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002517.php
Feith, the undersecretary of defense famously called “the dumbest fucking guy on the planet” by Gen. Tommy Franks, started his group shortly after 9/11 with the mandate, handed down from Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, to look for state sponsors of terrorism. That soon turned into a quest for signs of collaboration between Al Qaeda and Iraq; and Feith’s group was urged “to ignore the intelligence community’s belief that the militant Islamist al-Qaida and Saddam’s secular dictatorship were unlikely allies.”
February 14th, 2007 at 3:41 pmExactly what were his qualifications for working in the Pentagon when Rumsfeld appointed him? donald Rumsfeld seems to have surrounded himself with fanatics who were complately unqualified to do anything expect bully the military and lie to the citizens. Paul Wolfowitz is another example. Are there grounds for trying any of these people for treason? I’d like to know.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:45 pmThis is trite old game of “pass the buck”! “Feith-based Foreign Policy at it’s finest!
February 14th, 2007 at 3:45 pmI can’t wait to see this guy under oath.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:46 pmDigby says this is the most important and disturbing thing he has read in a long time. A “must read” he says.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/whitehouse200703?printable=true¤tPage=all
February 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pmDouglas Feith’s Fiction Novel: “The Neocon Nightmare” – coming to bookstores soon! This guy was writing pie-in-the-sky fiction then? And how did pure fiction come to be taken as fact and legitimate intelligence? This stinks right up to the Oval Office, that’s certain.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:47 pmFeith-based intelligence; is that a self-cancelling phrase, or what? And “stovepiping” is such an apt word: stovepipes are full of smoke, soot, and hot air. How appropriate…
February 14th, 2007 at 3:48 pmI’m amazed that anyone claims Feith has ‘intelligence’.
This little worm has done more harm to more people than anyone out of jail except Shooter.
And why does Georgetown U hire liars & filth?
Doug, baby, the heat is on. Hope you have a good A/C unit, because it’s going to get a Hell of a lot hotter.
Meanwhile, Rummy sits at a desk with six staffers. Are they ‘non-paid consultants, as well? If not, who’s paying them? Us? Known or Unknown?
February 14th, 2007 at 3:49 pmSen. Carl Levin has made understanding Feith his pet project. All of the right’s arguments fall at this man’s feet. This is going to get good quick.
February 14th, 2007 at 3:56 pmwhy is it Feith looks so nervous and guilty in all his appearances?
February 14th, 2007 at 4:01 pmOnce again, Little Dougie gets it wrong. I have a thought as to where he can put the stovepipe!
February 14th, 2007 at 4:04 pmI feel its a tactic to get so many different players and opinions involved, it diffuses responsibility to the point that you cannot find anyone who is responsible for anything. It’s the governmental way.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:04 pmAh, Feith. The man Tommy Franks referred to as “the dumbest fucking guy on the planet”. If that one makes it through the censorship, I’ll be shocked! But I have to agree with the sentiment.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:07 pmhere’s one for you Dougie:
“…. the aspens all turn color at the same time, you see, because they are connected by their roots……” Lewis ‘Scooter’ Libby
February 14th, 2007 at 4:12 pmIt’s a good thing Feith’s ass is conveniently attached to his backside.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:18 pmIt’s a good thing Feith’s ass is conveniently attached to his backside.
. . . and his head is stuck up it to fill the vacuum. Unfortunately, there is nothing that could fill the vacuum between his ears, though.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:21 pmwhy does WaPo, rather than the Times, give this idiot spaace to justify his unjustifiable alternative analysis? Why? Why do we have to continuously treat these people as if their views are valid or possibly reasonable. Why can’t those whose job it is to REPORT do some REPORTING and not just transcribe what someone with an agenda tells them. Come on, folks. Y’all are in the big leagues playing with the big boys. Stop acting like if you call someone on their BS that you’ll get killed because, guess what, people all over the world are actually getting killed.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:23 pm#18- I thought that was fecal matter.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:26 pmDouglas Feith is a mealy-mouthed reprobate who deserves a hard punch in his face for having the unmitigated gall to question Inspector General Gimble’s veracity. Mr. Excrement-For-Brains Feith deserves to be locked up with the terrorists at Gitmo–he is a bigger terrorist than all of them put together, and the key thrown away! Charge Feith and JAIL THE SODDING S.O.B.!!!!!
February 14th, 2007 at 4:33 pmLooks like Dougie overlooked the “expendability clause” in the fine print of his contract….
February 14th, 2007 at 4:38 pmReading about this guy’s doings and looking deep into his eyes, the pools of his soul, gives me pause to wonder: why do psychopath serial killers concentrate on innocent victoms, when there are people like this, out there? Hmmm…
February 14th, 2007 at 4:44 pmFeith is, and always has been, a snake.
February 14th, 2007 at 4:45 pmFeith, Perle, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, Kristol, Cheney, Bush, et al should be sentenced to an eternity in prison, ritually waterboarded, and made to stare at this frightening poem for the rest of theire miserable lives…
http://bobdylan.com/moderntimes/songs/masters.html
February 14th, 2007 at 4:52 pmThanks Feith, for reminding everyone why Tommy Franks called you ‘the dumbest man on the planet’.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:00 pmNow that the covers are off and the lights are on watch the cocroaches attempt to flee. Where are the defenders of Bush on this subject? This is why there arguments fall flat. They ignore the vile actions of Feith, Perle, Wolfowitz, the Office of Special Operations and the rest of the scurrying in the dark vermin.
February 14th, 2007 at 5:02 pmSacre Bleu!
February 14th, 2007 at 6:15 pmIt just isn’t like Feith to make stuff up.
This guy wouldn’t know the truth if it bit him in the ass.
Here – send him your thoughts… http://explore.georgetown.edu/people/djf35/
February 14th, 2007 at 6:33 pmI hope we get to measure Feith…
…like they did Saddam…
February 14th, 2007 at 7:07 pmSorry for a repost, but hours have passed and I think it is important to see how Feith bullshat Chris Wallace on Fox News on Sunday…Wallace couldn’t even believe it!! I broke up Feith’s statements by sentence and used elipses if there were two distinct obfuscations in a sentence, to show the utter vacuousness of this guy’s comments.
———————–
Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Feith was shockingly unrepentant, denying any and all evidence that he stacked the deck for war. It was too much even for Chris Wallace, the show’s host, who seemed incredulous that Feith would deny the obvious. (You can read the whole transcript here.) An excerpt:
WALLACE: Okay. Let’s talk about it, because the briefing was titled “Iraq and Al Qaeda Making the Case,” and here are some of the highlights from your PowerPoint presentation. “Intelligence indicates cooperation in all categories, mature symbiotic relationship.” “Some indications of possible Iraq coordination with Al Qaeda specifically related to 9/11.” And you said an alleged meeting between 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta and an Iraqi agent in Prague in April 2001 was a known contact. Mr. Feith, all of that–all of that was wrong, wasn’t it?
FEITH:
No, not at all.
There was substantial intelligence.
I mean, evidence is a legal term not really appropriate here.
There was a lot of information out there.
Intelligence is very sketchy,
…and it’s always open to interpretation.
On this issue, there were people who disagreed about the intelligence
…and the people in the Pentagon were giving a critical review.
They were not presenting alternative conclusions.
They were presenting a challenge to the way the CIA was looking at things
…and filtering its own information.
WALLACE: I have to tell you, I mean, when I–I mean, I read these as “mature symbiotic relationship,” “known contact”–that sure sounds like conclusions.
FEITH:
February 14th, 2007 at 7:31 pmYou’re plucking language out of a briefing,
…the thrust of which was why is the CIA accounting for information that it had that suggested an Iraq-Al Qaeda relationship when the CIA was excluding that information from its own finished intelligence at the time.
It was a criticism.
It’s healthy to criticize the CIA’s intelligence.
What the people in the Pentagon were doing was right.
It was good government.
Why does anybody listen to that failure. He is nothing.
February 14th, 2007 at 8:23 pmSo this whole war and quagmire is a feith based initiative???????
February 14th, 2007 at 10:38 pm