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Official Lies Exposed: The Levee, White House Leaks of Classified Material, Intelligence on Iraq War
Share / Recommend - Comment - Print - Friday, Feb 10, 06, 9:21AM
I'm off to New York this morning, writing this from the Metro-liner train, scanning the news.
I'm going to post a series of links today of things people should either know or just be very angry about. I'll add more commentary later, but there's too much to tell today not to get some of it out now.
First and foremost is Eric Lipton's powerful New York Times report that the White House lied when stating that it "had been caught by surprise" that a levee had broken in New Orleans:
In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.Investigators have found evidence that federal officials at the White House and elsewhere learned of the levee break in New Orleans earlier than was first suggested.
But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency official, Marty Bahamonde, first heard of a major levee breach Monday morning. By late Monday afternoon, Mr. Bahamonde had hitched a ride on a Coast Guard helicopter over the breach at the 17th Street Canal to confirm the extensive flooding. He then telephoned his report to FEMA headquarters in Washington, which notified the Homeland Security Department.
"FYI from FEMA," said an e-mail message from the agency's public affairs staff describing the helicopter flight, sent Monday night at 9:27 to the chief of staff of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and recently unearthed by investigators. Conditions, the message said, "are far more serious than media reports are currently reflecting. Finding extensive flooding and more stranded people than they had thought -- also a number of fires."
Secondly, the White House promulgated a culture of leaking classified information. Vice President Cheney and his key staff had significant power in the post-9/11 power and they abused it and undermined the national security of this country.
However, the White House -- and particularly David Addington -- have excoriated and villified other potential leakers of materials who were responding to a loyalty to the nation -- rather than a loyalty to Cheney. More on this issue later -- but read the linked story by Neil Lewis.
Third, although I'm not sure how much more confirmation we need, former National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia Paul Pillar has just published one of the most devastating critiques of the Bush administration's manufactured war, or what former State Department Chief of Staff Lawrence Wilkerson recently called, "a hoax on the American people."
The sad fact is that we seem to need ongoing waves of confirmation of White House blindness and missteps as it approached the War against Iraq.
A summary of Pillar's important, controversial article, "Intelligence, Policy and the War in Iraq" in the March/April 2006 issue of Foreign Affairs:
During the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, writes the intelligence community's former senior analyst for the Middle East, the Bush administration disregarded the community's expertise, politicized the intelligence process, and selected unrepresentative raw intelligence to make its public case.
From Walter Pincus's excellent profile of Paul Pillar today in the Washington Post:
"Official intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs was flawed, but even with its flaws, it was not what led to the war," Pillar wrote in the upcoming issue of the journal Foreign Affairs. Instead, he asserted, the administration "went to war without requesting -- and evidently without being influenced by -- any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq.""It has become clear that official intelligence was not relied on in making even the most significant national security decisions, that intelligence was misused publicly to justify decisions already made, that damaging ill will developed between [Bush] policymakers and intelligence officers, and that the intelligence community's own work was politicized," Pillar wrote.
Pillar's critique is one of the most severe indictments of White House actions by a former Bush official since Richard C. Clarke, a former National Security Council staff member, went public with his criticism of the administration's handling of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and its failure to deal with the terrorist threat beforehand.
It is also the first time that such a senior intelligence officer has so directly and publicly condemned the administration's handling of intelligence.
This is all powerful, important -- and at some level, just harder confirmation of things we all know already.
We have become too tolerant a nation regarding official lies.
The President now reveals top secret information that a serious al Qaeda effort to destroy what I used to know as "Library Tower" in Los Angeles as a justification for the many nefarious things that his administration has done.
This is unbelievable on so many fronts. First, I believe that the U.S. government did stop a terrible attack from occurring in Los Angeles. That is the government's job, and it does need robust intelligence capacity to stop, inderdict, and deter very bad people from doing horrific things.
The REASON why Bush did not previously disclose this thwarted terrorist attack has more to do with not want to reveal "means and methods" or not wanting to compromise sources so that more information can be generated such means and sources in the future.
Very possibly, the President has just sacrificed key sources or exposed some of our means in order to cover himself politically. This was an incredibly cynical gesture on his part -- disclosing an intelligence success as implied justification for the suspension of American civil liberties, privacy, and warrantless wiretaps.
This is just wrong and a serious violation of our Constitution.
I will post more later today.
Greetings to all New Yorkers.
I'm sure I'll be lurking in numerous coffee shops around town today, seeing some foundations, filmmakers, and bloggers.
More later.
-- Steve Clemons
The levee of lies has finally been breeched.
The Bush Administration is being reduced to a broken-backed slithering thing with a desperate and dangerous hiss...
I suspect Steve... that even your friend Tweety might whistle a fair tune tonight.
Although let's face this fact:
The only thing holding this administration above water is the corporate media.
I suspect their elevation act is unsustainable.
Perhaps we have reached the point where not even the media fakirs will be able to fake it anymore.
One way or another:
The Bush administration is finished.
In name... if not in deed.
Koreyel,
The media is indeed the key player here. It's either up to the handful of corporate owners to say enough is enough, or its time for the pampered elite of American journalism to put some starch in their spines and do some real reporting without fear of losing their jobs.
Yes, the "levee of lies has finally been breached". Lets see if it makes one wit, I repeat, ONE WIT, of difference to the fog machine and its victims. My guess is they will continue to line up and drink the kool-aid. Either because they have honestly been fooled, or, much more likely, they know which side their bread is buttered on. After all, Steve still believes the LA Tower story. Which, I will bet, down the road will been seen to orginate from a round, or a few rounds, of waterboarding.
Steve, nice post. Brings it all together.
Dems really need to start making noise about:
1. GOP willing to sacrifice our liberties because they are afraid of Osama bin Laden.
2. GOP's intentional "blindness" towards and fear of White House and its actions have weakened national security.
3. GOP is really just afraid of everything, which makes for piss poor decision making and weakens this country at every level.
Why does Mike Chertoff get a pass on all of this?
Gives new meaning to "You're doing a heck of a job, Brownie!", doesn't it? I guess blacks floating face down in the sewage of neighborhods they will NEVER RETURN TO was the PLAN, eh?
And gee, is this where Steve's infamous "angry and aren't-going-to-take-it-anymore Democratic establishment" jumps in????
These revelations about the corrupt and criminal machinations of the Bush Administration are actually becoming quite passe. We had the evidence LONG AGO to send these fascist bastards to hell, and I see no reason to believe that any further exposures of wrongdoing are suddenly going to put balls on the mewling cowards that are supposed to represent the "minority party". Until we get some politicians in there that represent WE THE PEOPLE, absent partisan posturing, rhetoric, and pursuit of individual agendas, we are stuck with what we have. Besides, for those of you STILL IN DENIAL, such as Steve, you optimistically skip through this crap with the misguided notion that your vote is still counted as cast. And even if by some remarkable miracle the balloting system was cleaned up tomorrow, the fact still remains that these sons of bitches will not hesitate to murder a few thousand more of us in ANOTHER staged terrorist attack, if that is what is "required" to maintain their stranglehold on power.
Politics, and politicians, have ceased to serve the people. Washington is a free for all of corruption and power plays that pursue GLOBAL agendas. The Harry Reids, the Kerrys, and the Hillarys out there are not going to ride to the rescue. Until WE THE PEOPLE find our voices again though MASS DISSENT and PROTEST, we will be "governed" in the manner we now find ourselves experiencing.
But make NO MISTAKE, if we do not turn this around, we are entering into a period of our history where words such as I have just spoken will be more than enough to land those such as myself in a federal gulag, or worse.
POA, just relax.
Between global warming and Bush's ascendancy, I've been stacking up on floral shirts and daiquiri mix.
how angry do we need to get before this circus is closed down?
A thread on Firedoglake last night provided this. The bastards actually changed the LAW to out Plame. Are you surprised? Is this what Libby is talking about?
Executive Order 12958-Classified National Security Information, as Amended
http://www.archives.gov/isoo/policy-documents/eo-12958-amendment.html#part-2
And the EO that requested the change.
http://www.fas.org/sgp/bush/eoamend.html
It fits into the timeline perfectly here.
http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Plame_Leak_timeline#May_2003
I'm not sure that it's reasonable to say that the President has done something wrong by releasing whatever information he did to describe the thwarted attack on LA. After all, lots of people had been howling that he should have not been authorizing the type of surveillance he had been and even that he should be impeached for doing it. Now that he can show that his actions saved LA from what would have been a horrific attack, he's being attacked for showing that what he did was positive. I think we cannot have it both ways. We can't whine when he proves that his actions were effective, unless we also want to say that we don't want such actions taken EVEN IF THEY ARE EFFECTIVE. And who is going to argue that and win an election? Dems? No, don't think so. I felt all along that Bush had some event that administration actions had thwarted and was just waiting to throw it out there at the worst possible moment for the "Impeach Bush" crowd.
Also, while I believe in transparent government, I don't think that means that every action taken by every member of the administration, any administration, is subject to review by the NYT and the general public.
Since Bush clearly lied about WMD and New Orleans, why in the world would you believe him about a shoe bomber in LA?
avaroo -- Bush made *no* attempt to claim warrantless surveillance contributed to the foiling of the LA plot. What he actually said:
"Their plot was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key Al Qaeda operative. Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how Al Qaeda hoped to execute it."
So, your point was what, exactly?
what am i to make of the bush/abramoff photos that "lurgis" linked to in his comments? are they "news" or am i out of the loop?
Steve wrote:
The REASON why Bush did not previously disclose this thwarted terrorist attack has more to do with not want to reveal "means and methods" or not wanting to compromise sources so that more information can be generated such means and sources in the future.
Actually, this isn't the first time. Do you recall back to 2004, where the Brits were outraged that the Bush admin blew Noor (sp?) Kahn, a Pakistani double agent in Al Qaeda, just so the Bush admin could have justification for a phony terror alert immediately after the Democratic National Convention?
Disgusted,
When Bush exposed the Pakistani agent in 2004, the British were extremely angry, and they lost the ability to track a subway-bombing plot because they had to arrest some members right away. Fortunately, nothing ever came of that plot in the end, eh?
Mr. Clemons--I wouldn't be so damn sure that the LA plot wasn't a convienent fabrication by an Admin that will do ANYTHING for the party. For example, they claim the plot was foiled in 2002...by (torture-enhanced) testimony gained by an arrest in 2003. Huh? Townsend couldn't answer a number of basic, simple questions about it, as if she didn't want to compound her (potential) lie.
Call me cynical, but I have grave doubts that anything Bush says from here on out is legitimate and truthfull, which is a terrible way to view a Prez with 3 years left on the spedometer...
Oh what a treasonous web politicians weave when first they practice to deceive. Lies, illegal war, treason, mass murder, theft, graft, severe violations of national security, and the rationales and excuses for 9/11/01...LIES! All of it! Lies and more lies and more lies on top of the lies that Scotty McClellan lied about while facing the American people. If this hasn't finally generated one colossal constitutional crisis, our democracy is over and you'd better spit polish your jack boots. Impeachment! Impeachment! Bush, Cheney, Frist, Hastert, and the list is incredibly long. This is without doubt the nastiest collection of miscreants that America has ever been shackled with.
I have to say, even I wish the Admin. would stop working so hard to push PR rather than do actual policy work.
JS, PR is the only thing they do well.
PR and politics is what they do well. When its time for policy they just a blank piece of paper.
This grand jury revelation by Fitzgerald looks like Fitz may go after Libby's "superiors" directly. Libby may threaten graymail but Fitz nailed him for perjury rather than treason, so the whole graymail/Ollie North defense goes out the window.
Fire up that popcorn cos the drip drip of Cheney revelations has just started.
What's really amazing is that all the country club Republicans said this was our boy (I'm a conservative). This is the guy who was gonna take the GOP into power for the next century. he as da' man. Turns out it was one long big lie.
Charles, it's not over yet.
The game is rigged big time with the help of the corporate media and with the Goopers fundraising advantages, not to mention gerrymandering.
The LA attack was in fact aborted by the arrest of participants by an overseas ally of ours, emphasizing that the really important thing is cooperation and not alienating allies by the "my way or the highway" attitude of Bush.
Lurgis -- You should go over to DailyKos and post those photos in a dairy.
farmgirl, how does this discount the use of surveillance by the Bush administration as part of what thwarted this attack? What do you think subsequent intelligence operations refers to?
"Their plot was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key Al Qaeda operative. Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how Al Qaeda hoped to execute it."
Re: releasing classified info for political purposes, aside from the Plame affair, there was the Mohammed Naeem Noor Khan affair from 2004. This was an important spy operation blown by the Bush administration for an advantage in the week's news cycle.
Andrew, that's right, and that stunt may have cost the Brits a chance to stop the subway bombing plot.
Welcome to the Apple, Steve.
The LA plot may well be real, but there is a dispute about just what type of threat the plot represented.
Dan Froomkin points out this article in today's Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020900301.html
Froomkin's "Questions of Credibility" today:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
That said, I very much wonder about Pillar's assertion that "The administration('s) ... decision to topple Saddam was driven by ... the desire to shake up the sclerotic power structures of the Middle East and hasten the spread of more liberal politics and economics in the region."
Focus,
Depends on your definition of "liberal", doesn't it?
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