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Recent
Stories
June
12, 2003
Ray
McGovern
Deceived into War: Reflections of
a Former CIA Analyst
June
11, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
June
10, 2003
Benjamin
Shepard
A Season in the Anti-War Movement
Chris
Floyd
Bush Family Lies About Iraq and Nazi
Germany
Wayne
Madsen
Weaponsgate
Jason Leopold
Powell's Denials Ring Hollow
Richard
Lichtman
Whining, Whimpering Leftists Confront the Logic of American World
Domination
Ray
Close
A CIA Analyst on Why the Lies About
WMD Matter
Hammond
Guthrie
Banking on Saddam?
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log 6/10
June
9, 2003
Alex
Coolman
Male Rape in US Prisons
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft is Coming!
Lee
Sustar
Is Iran Next?
Agustin
Velloso
Equatorial Guinea: Few Rich, Many
Poor
Gila
Svirsky
Some Lives Are Worth Less Than Others
Dr. Gerry
Lower
Human Worth in Bush's America
Michael
S. Ladah
A True Liberation
Ishmael Reed
Iraqi Slaughter, Mayhem and Plunder
Steve
Perry
How to Beat Bush, part 1
June
7 / 8, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
The Terrible Truth
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Going Critical: Bush's War on Endangered Species
Joanne
Mariner
Ashcrofts Sides with Torturers
Steven
Sherman
A Different Theory of Everything
Ron Jacobs
Sports, Politics and the 60s
M.
Shahid Alam
Pauperizing the Periphery
Amelia
Peltz
If This is the Road, I'd Rather be Lost
Shelton
Hull
Another Powell, Another Capitulation
Binoy Kampmark
Nuclear Deterrence and North Korea
Ben
Tripp
A Fish Story
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Where is the Outrage?
Robin
Philpot
Congo Distortions
Julie Hilden
Murder and the Matrix
Laura
Flanders
An Interview with Isabel Allende
David Lindorff
The Last Byline
Adam
Engel
Talk Dirty Scary Monsters
Poets'
Basement
Kearney, Reiss, Guthrie, Albert and Hamod
June
6, 2003
Elaine
Cassel
Ashcroft the Insatiable
David
Krieger
The Big Lie
Ramzy
Baroud
Sharon and the Myth of the Peacemakers
Anthony
Gancarski
Sharansky: "Crucifixion is a Privilege"
Sam
Hamod
His Own Little Country
Sean Carter
Why Indict Martha Stewart and Not Ken Lay?
David
Lindorff
Cracks in the Consensus
Stew Albert
Ari's Great Set
Steve
Perry
Greens and
Moore in 04? No
June
5, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Pools of Fire: The Looming Nuclear
Nightmare in the Woods of North Carolina
Imraan
Siddiqi
Ann Coulter's Foul Mouth
Michael
Leon
Clinton, Reno & Waco: Remember What They've Done
Robert
Jensen
Texas Pledge Law Undermines Democracy
Ann Harrison
Rosenthal is Free, But the Fight isn't Over
Paul
Dean
How You Can Be Deliriously Happy in the Age of Bush
Gary Leupp
When Spooks Speak Out
Website
of the Day
Evidence in Black and White?
June
4, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
Federal Judge Blinks; Rosenthal
Walks
Lisa
Walsh Thomas
The Isaiah Crowd: The Threat of Neo-Christianity
Jason
Leopold
Manufacturing the Iraq War
John Chuckman
Blackmail as Policy
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
Summit: Peace or Pretense?
Issam Nashashibi
Sharon's Sword of Damocles
Steve
Perry
Wolfowitz of Arabia: the VF interview transcript
June
3, 2003
Chris
Floyd
Copycat Killers: Bush, Jakarta and
the Slaughter in Aceh
Jason
Leopold
Wolfowitz Tells All
Elaine
Cassel
We Interrupt Your Normal Show to Bring You an Important Message
from Michael Powell: "Go to Hell, Americans!"
Tom
Crumpacker
The Politics of US Cuba Policy
William
S. Lind
Fourth Generation Warfare in Iraq
Sam
Hamod
The Final Brick in the Wall
Uri
Avnery
The Altalena Affair
Hammond
Guthrie
Stepping into Some Deep DARPA
Steve
Perry
The WashTimes'
al-Qaeda nuke "exclusive"
June
2, 2003
Arundhati
Roy
Day of the Jackals
Norman
Madarasz
Behind the Neo-Con Curtain: Plato,
Leo Strauss and Allan Bloom
Alain
Frachon and Daniel Vernet
The Strategist and the Philosopher: Strauss and Wohlstetter
Anthony
Gancarski
Anti-Imperialism, Then & Now
Standard
Schaefer
Wasted at the Pentagon
Jason
Leopold
Rocky's Advice to the Dems
Guthrie
& Albert
HUAC 58 Years Letter
Steve
Perry
The Politics of Terror Alerts
May
31, 2003
Alexander
Cockburn
A Whiner Called Horowitz
Gary Leupp
The Frauds of War
Dave
Lindorff
Clinton, Bush, Lies and Impeachment
Tom Stephens
Does It Matter that the Bush Administration Lied?
Sasan
Fayazmanesh
Who Is Next?
Joanne
Mariner
Trivializing Terrorism
Wayne
Madsen
Ayatollah Ashcroft's Busy Week
Larry Magnuson
Is a Television a Radio or a Billboard?
Elaine
Cassel
Wake Up, America!
Gila Svirsky
Waiting for the Lament to End
Susan
Davis
Kitchen Dreams
Chris Clarke
Barbra Streisand: Environmental Hypocrite
Chris
Floyd
Bush Locates Source of World Evil: God
Adam Engel
Gravity's End Zone
Poets'
Basement
Reiss, Guthrie, Orloski, Albert
May
30, 2003
Ben
Tripp
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Agenda
Neve
Gordon
The Bad Fence
Todd
Steiner
Endangered Ocean
Robert
Freeman
Bush's Tax Cuts: a Form of National Insanity
Sean
Carter
Utah Gets Fired Up for Executions
Daniel
Bacher
How Bush's War Violated International Laws
Tariq
Ali
Re-Colonizing Iraq
Steve
Perry
Bush Wars
Web Log
May
29, 2003
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Jason
Leopold
Despite Thin Intelligence Reports,
US Plans Overthrow of Iran Regime
Ron
Jacobs
Popular Uprising, Inc.
Michelle
Ciaccorra
Bush's Nuclear Policy: Do As I Say, Not As I Do
Yves Engler
The Economics of Health Care in
America: Pay More to Die Sooner
Kimberly
Blaker
Vouchers for Jesus
Harry
Browne
Stakeknife: Britain's Army Spy at
the Top of the IRA
Stew
Albert
Cops of the World
Steve Perry
Greens 04: In or Out?
Hot Stories
CounterPunch
Wire
WMD: Who Said What When
Cindy
Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
Elaine
Cassel
Civil Liberties
Watch
Michel
Guerrin
Embedded Photographer Says: "I
Saw Marines Kill Civilians"
Uzma
Aslam Khan
The Unbearably Grim Aftermath of War:
What America Says Does Not Go
Paul de Rooij
Arrogant
Propaganda
Gore Vidal
The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
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for More Stories.
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June
12, 2003
Deceived into War
Ordering
Powell with Rice
By RAY McGOVERN
former CIA analyst
When FOX TV asked me to present my views Sunday
on the ongoing quest for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq,
the first thing the anchor asked was why I should care about
the phantom wmds when the vast majority of Americans don't.
I responded, somewhat indecorously, that
this was largely the fault of FOX news and other media that have
kept Americans malnourished on small issues like why our country
launched a "preemptive" war. I was dyspeptic on Sunday
after watching Condoleezza Rice and Colin Powell blow still more
smoke at these key issues and disparage those with altogether
legitimate questions.
Powell said it was "nonsense"
to brand as "bogus" the intelligence adduced to justify
making war on Iraq. But, sadly, "bogus" is precisely
the correct word to apply to the key piece of "evidence"
used to deceive our representatives and senators into voting
to give President Bush permission to launch an unprovoked war
on Iraq.
However strong a word, "bogus"
pales in comparison with the seven-letter F-word to which Powell
and Rice showed themselves allergic: F for forgery.
Yes, forgery. Had FOX and other news
outlets adequately reported on what both Powell had already conceded
was a forgery, the American people might have a better appreciation
as to why they should care.
I refer to the bogus story that Iraq
was attempting to acquire uranium from Niger to develop nuclear
weapons. Those who followed developments at the UN have known
since February that that story was based on a crude forgery.
What is little known is that the Bush administration knew it
was bogus a full year earlier. (Those who find themselves wondering
why Powell and Rice have conceded the point need only to remember
that the UN now has the forged documents.)
To his credit, early last year Vice President
Dick Cheney sent to Niger a former US ambassador in Africa to
investigate the story. The latter brought back word that the
documents were not authentic. But this did not prevent senior
administration officials from using them in the critical run-up
to Congress' vote to give the president the authority to make
war.
Indeed, President Bush included the forged
"evidence" in his state-of-the-union address on January
28-something Dr. Rice, when asked about it by George Stephanopoulos
on Sunday, was at a loss to explain satisfactorily. Now "senior
administration officials" are telling gullible reporters
that Cheney was never informed of the outcome of the investigation
he ordered. I'm not making this up.
Recent press reports of a Defense Intelligence
Agency study of Sept. 2002 that found "no definitive, reliable
information" that Iraq was producing or stockpiling chemical
or biological weapons has helped me connect the dots, so to speak.
Last fall's full-court press to get Congress
to vote for war required proof that Iraq posed a clear and present
danger. As Bush's strategists reviewed the bidding, it became
painfully clear that allegations of a confirmed chemical and
biological threat would run too great a risk of being undermined
by uncooperative analysts in the DIA.
At that point the White House decided
to present evidence raising the specter of nuclear weapons in
the hands of Saddam Hussein and play up the danger of a "mushroom
cloud." Former UN nuclear inspector David Albright said
Sunday that he was "deeply troubled by the selective use
of information to basically scare people. People are scared by
nuclear weapons. And it's a button."
But where was the evidence? It is now
clear that the only thing available at that time was the so-called
argument from aluminum tubes. There had been reports of Iraq
trying to procure them from abroad, and those eager to please
the White House offered instant "analysis" that the
tubes were for Iraq's "nuclear program." Thus, Dr.
Rice on Sept. 8, 2002 told Wolf Blitzer that "Saddam Hussein
is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. We do know that there
have been shipments into Iraq of aluminum tubes that really are
only suited to nuclear weapons programs."
But when the engineers and scientists
at US nuclear labs were consulted, their virtually unanimous
conclusion was that the tubes were not suitable for a nuclear
application. So that line of argument turned out to be as weak
as the chemical and biological weapons evidence about which DIA
analysts were so suspicious.
What was left? Someone remembered the
forged correspondence between Iraq and Niger, decided that it
could be used to win the vote in Congress, to win the war in
Iraq, and in the afterglow of victory, no one would care that
the evidence was bogus.
It worked.
Small wonder that Rep. Henry Waxman (D,
CA), in a March 17 letter to the president, expressed outrage
at having been deceived into voting for war, since "the
evidence cited regarding Iraq's efforts to obtain nuclear weapons
is a hoax."
Ray McGovern,
a CIA analyst for 27 years, is now on the Steering Group of Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. His day job is co-director
of the Servant Leadership School, an inner-city outreach ministry
in Washington, DC. He can be reached at: mcgovern@counterpunch.org
Today's
Features
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Attack of the Hog Killers: Why the
Generals Hate the A-10
Elaine
Cassel
Meet Michael Chertoff: Ashcroft's
Top Gremlin
David Lindorff
The Republican Drive to Eliminate Overtime Pay
Tom
Gorman
Greens, the Antiwar Movement and 2004
Alfredo
Castro
Colombia: The Most Dangerous Place
on Earth for Trade Unionists
Nnimo
Bassey and Lawrence Bohlen
Bush Must Stop Telling Us What to
Eat!
Julie Hilden
Spike Lee v. Spike TV
CounterPunch
Wire
Blair Bros. Change Jobs!
Eric
Hobsbawm
The Empire Expands, Wider and Still
Wider
Steve
Perry
DHS: As Big
a Planning Snafu as Iraq?
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