http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1671984,00.html --------------------------------------------------The American nightmare
The Bush administration's defence of unauthorised phone taps shows a chilling disregard for the rule of law, writes Philip James
Wednesday December 21, 2005
Is America becoming what it most fears: a big brother state ruled by diktat, where no one is protected from eavesdropping by the secret police, and everything is permitted in defence of the homeland, including torture?
Perhaps I'm naive, but I grew up believing that America was somehow different, that alongside the corporate greed, brash materialism and barely functioning social safety net, a unique society prospered. This America was a land of limitless opportunity, a magnet to those escaping oppression, offering prince and pauper alike the possibility to dream big.
This America still exists, but it is being eroded by an administration that believes it can rule outside the rule of law. They are fast replacing the American dream with an American nightmare, an Orwellian world where memos defending torture are penned in the department of justice and judges are made redundant in the public interest.
The irony of President Bush's proud statement this week on the Iraqi elections was inescapable. "The Iraqi people now enjoy constitutionally protected freedoms and their leaders now derive their powers from the consent of the governed," he said at the start of a press conference in which he defended eroding those freedoms at home while asserting his power to act without judicial check.
Waiting to authorise wiretaps on suspected enemies of the state takes too long, long enough for them to act, went the argument. This is bogus. The laws in place make attaining a warrant for a wiretap extremely easy. What's more, once a warrant is obtained, it is effective without review for up to 120 days.
The warrant law is not some tiresome piece of procedural bureaucracy, but the only safeguard against the executive branch of government targeting anyone they don't particularly like for any reason of their choosing. It was put in place after the Watergate scandal demonstrated how easily the White House could persecute its perceived political opponents by drawing up secret enemies lists.
In an astonishing display of candour, Dick Cheney now looks back on the Nixon presidency with chilling nostalgia, ruing the loss of unfettered executive power. "Watergate and Vietnam served ... to erode the authority I think the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area," opined the vice-president to a gaggle of reporters in the cabin of Air Force Two, as they flew over the Middle East.
Dick Cheney isn't the only one prone to bouts of nostalgia, nowadays. I have begun to look back on my first close encounter with American power. I was a young journalist covering the Reagan-Gorbachev summit in Moscow. The sight of the presidential motorcade growling through Red Square, literally pulling up to the front door of the "evil empire" was nothing less than awesome. But something that seemed insignificant at the time stayed with me.
I was struck by how fascinated Gorbachev's security detail was with its American counterpart. As the two delegations negotiated the end of the Soviet Union inside the Kremlin, outside KGB agents marvelled at the air conditioning of the secret service agents' Chevy Suburbans, the superior fabric of their suits.
The Russians' eyes revealed more than material envy, however. They betrayed the acknowledgment that the Americans represented to them the pinnacle of individual freedom, while they remained locked in the dark ages of a repressive state. I wonder if today's Russians still marvel at America in the same way, an America that cannot clearly renounce torture as an acceptable method of interrogation and sanctions secret spying on anyone the president considers threatening.
While the rest of the world may have lost faith in America long ago, President Bush is counting on the continued support of Americans. He has calculated that, after 9/11, the American people are prepared to trade some constitutional liberties for personal safety. It is a cynical calculation that has worked so far. So far fear has triumphed over hope.
The first rumblings of a backlash are finally evident in a Congress that has up to now been loth to challenge a wartime president. Sensing that the president may have overplayed his hand, Republican senator Arlen Specter has announced he'll hold hearings into Mr Bush's decision to allow domestic wiretaps without court approval.
Public opinion still lags behind the outrage of senators. In a country that still feels it could be one day away from the next terrorist attack, public opinion may never catch up. Fear may still triumph over hope.
ยท Philip James is a former senior Democratic party strategist
Rice and Ed Bradley:
Condi Rice, Bush's National Security Adviser, appeared on 60 Minutes Sunday evening, but, unlike Bush anti-terrorism adviser Dick Clarke at the 9/11 Probe, she did not swear on the Bible that what she would say would be the truth. While Clarke on 60 Minutes last Sunday allowed himself to be probed and turned inside and out for nearly the entire program, the edited tape of the Rice interview with Ed Bradley lasted around 10 minutes, and she said nothing new. The short episode came across as political spin to control the bleeding, and nothing more.
Rice's Lie #1 (transcript)
DICK CLARKE (video):
I said 'Mr. President, we've done this before. We - we've been looking at this. We looked at it with an open mind, there's no connection.' He came back at me and said, 'Iraq, Saddam - find out if there's a connection.' And in a very intimidating way. I mean, that we should come back with that answer....
CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
I - I have never seen the president say an - anything to an - people in an intimidating way, to try to get a particular answer out of them. I know this president very well. And the president doesn't talk to his staff in an intimidating way to ask them to produce information - that is false.
OUR RESPONSE:
Clarke and two others were in the room with Bush. The others have gone on record as agreeing with Clarke's description of the meeting. Condi was not present.
Rice's Lie #2 (transcript)
VOICE OVER:
All week long, the White House said it had no recollection that the September 12 meeting ever took place, and that it had no record that President Bush was even in the situation room that day. But two days ago, they changed their story, saying the meeting did happen.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
"None of us recall the specific - conversation....
OUR RESPONSE:
Actually, two lies here. First, the White House said the meeting didn't happen, then they changed their story. Second, Condi misleads Bradley by saying "us" did not recall the specific conversation. Of course "us" didn't since it has already been established that "us" was not in the room at the time of the conversation.
Rice's Lie #3 (transcript)
ED BRADLEY:
Clarke has alleged that the Bush administration underestimated the threat from - from al Qaeda, didn't act as if terrorism was an imminent and urgent problem. Was it?
CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
Of course it was an urgent - problem....
ED BRADLEY: :
But even the former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Hugh Shelton, has said that the Bush administration pushed terrorism, and I'm quoting here, farther to the back burner.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
I just don't agree....
ED BRADLEY:
After 9/11, Bob Woodward wrote a book in which he had incredible access and interviewed the president of the United States. He quotes President Bush as saying that he didn't feel a sense of urgency about Osama bin Laden. Woodward wrote that bin Laden was not the president's focus or that of his nationally security team. You're saying that the administration says fighting terrorism and al-Qaeda has been a top priority since the beginning.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
I'm saying that the administration took seriously the threat - let's talk about what we did....
ED BRADLEY: :
You'd listed the things that you'd done. But here is the perception. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff at that time says you pushed it to the back burner. The former Secretary of the Treasury says it was not a priority. Mr. Clarke says it was not a priority. And at least, according to Bob Woodward, who talked with the president, he is saying that for the president, it wasn't urgent. He didn't have a sense of urgency about al Qaeda. That's the perception here.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE:
Ed, I don't know what a sense of urgency - any greater than the one that we had, would have caused us to do differently.
OUR RESPONSE:
It's clear that Bradley wants to discuss the Clarke charge that the Bush administration changed terrorism from the top priority to one of secondary concern, and Rice attepts to twist the question of giving terrorism "top priority" to taking terrorism "seriously," which are two different things. Then Bush is quoted as saying terrorism was not "urgent." Rice ignores this documented quote and goes on to disagree with Bush. As such, she is attempting to mislead by changing the terms from "top priority" to "seriously," and to simply ignore the evidence presented that Bush disagrees with her. As such, she is on auto-pilot as she lies, spinning the implicit scenario she wants Bradley to accept.
Finally, Bradley repeatedly gave Rice the program's forum to apologize for 9/11 to the millions of viewers watching the show, like Clarke did on the show last week and previously to that under oath in front of the 9/11 Panel, but she refused each time. (transcript)
In his book, Tyranny's Ally: America's Failure to Defeat Saddam Hussein, David Wurmser of the American Enterprise Institute urges the US to support an insurgency aimed at toppling the Bath'ist government of Saddam Hussein as part of a broader policy to defeat pan-Arabism in Iraq. In its place, the US should encourage the creation of a "loosely unified Iraqi confederal government, shaped around strong sectarian and provincial entities," Wurmser argues. [Wurmser, 1999, pp 136-137] What happens in Iraq is vitally important, Wurmser notes, because the country is of extreme strategic importance. "It is a key transportation route, and it is rich in both geographic endowments and human talent," he explains. "Its location on pathways between Asia and Europe, Africa and Asia, and Europe and Africa makes it an ideal route for armies, pipelines, and trade from both the eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor to the Persian Gulf. Iraq also has large, proven oil reserves, water, and other important resources. Its geographic centrality and abundance of natural advantages alone make the country a regionally important center." [Wurmser, 1999, pp 116-117]
People and organizations involved: David Wurmser
February 1999
Wissam al-Zahawie, Iraq's ambassador to the Vatican, sets off on a trip to several African countries as part of an effort to convince African heads of state to visit Iraq. Saddam Hussein hopes that these visits will help break the embargo on flights to Iraq, and undermine the UN sanctions regime. Zahawie's first stop is Niger, where he meets with the country's president, President Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, for one hour. Mainassara promises that he will visit Baghdad the following April (He's assasinated before he has an opportunity to do this). [Sunday Herald, 7/13/2003; Time, 10/2/2003; New Yorker, 10/20/03; Independent, 8/10/03a Sources: Wissam al-Zahawie, Charles O. Cecil] Zahawie's visit is reported in the local newspaper as well as by a French news agency. The US and British governments are also aware of the trip but show no concern. No one suggests that the trip's motives have anything to do with acquiring uranium. At this time, Niger is actively seeking economic assistance from the United States. [New Yorker, 10/20/03 Sources: Charles O. Cecil, Wissam al-Zahawie] In early 2002, the Italian military intelligence service, SISMI, will allege in a report (see February 5, 2002) sent to the US that the motive behind the visit was to discuss the future purchase of uranium oxide, also known as "yellowcake" (see October 15, 2001). [New Yorker, 10/20/03 Sources: Wissam al-Zahawie, Unnamed US intelligence sources]
People and organizations involved: Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, Wissam al-Zahawie
February 4, 1999
President Clinton signs Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 99-13 designating seven Iraqi opposition groups as being eligible to receive US federal funds under the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act (see October 31, 1998). The act stated that the policy of the US should be to support regime change in Iraq. The seven groups include the Iraqi National Accord, the Iraqi National Congress, the Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan, the Kurdistan Democratic Party, the Movement for Constitutional Monarchy, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, and the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq. [White House, 2/4/1999]
People and organizations involved: Islamic Movement of Iraqi Kurdistan, Iraqi National Congress, Iraqi National Accord, Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, Kurdistan Democratic Party, Movement for Constitutional Monarchy, William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton
March 1999
A special panel of the UN Security Council reports that "the declared facilities of Iraq's biological weapons program have been destroyed and rendered harmless." [Guardian, 5/15/02; Daily Mirror, 4/5/02]
(After June or July 1999)
Rocco Martino, an Italian information peddler and former SISMI agent, provides French officials with documents suggesting that Iraq intends to expand its "trade" with Niger. It is not known from where he obtains these documents. The French assume the trade being discussed concerns uranium, Niger's main export. At French intelligence's request, Martino continues supplying them with documents. [Financial Times, 8/2/04; Sunday Times, 8/1/04]
People and organizations involved: France, Rocco Martino
June 1999
A businessman reportedly approaches Nigerien Prime Minister Ibrahim Mayaki and insists that Mayaki meet with an Iraqi delegation to discuss "expanding commercial relations" between Niger and Iraq. Mayaki reportedly interprets "expanding commercial relations" to mean that Iraq is interested in discussing uranium sales. According to Mayaki, he does meet the delegation but avoids discussion of trade issues because of UN sanctions on the country. They reportedly never discuss what the businessman had meant when he said Iraq was interested in "expanding commercial relations." [Sources: Report On The US Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq]
People and organizations involved: Ibrahim Mayaki
November 19, 1999
Congress allocates $10 million "to support efforts to bring about political transition in Iraq, of which not less than $8 million shall be made available only to Iraqi opposition groups designated under the ILA [Iraq Liberation Act of 1998] for political, economic humanitarian, and other activities of such groups, and not more than $2 million may be made available for groups and activities seeking the prosecution of Saddam Hussein and other Iraqi Government officials for war crimes." President Clinton signs the appropriation bill into law on November 29. [The Library of Congress Thomas Database, n.d. Sources: Public Law 106-113] This $10 million dollars is the first allocation of funds to Iraqi opposition groups out of the total $97 million that was authorized by the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act (see October 31, 1998).
People and organizations involved: Iraqi National Congress, William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton
December 2, 1999
Speaking in Manchester, New Hampshire, presidential candidate George Bush says as president he would not lift the sanctions on Iraq nor attempt to negotiate with Saddam Hussein. "I'd make darn sure that he lived up to the agreements that he signed back in the early '90s. I'd be helping the opposition groups. And if I found, in any way shape or form, that he was developing weapons of mass destruction, I'd take them out. I'm surprised he's still there. I think a lot of other people are as well." [Boston Globe, 12/3/1999; Federal Document Clearing House, 12/2/1999]
People and organizations involved: George W. Bush
December 17, 1999
With the passing of UN Resolution 1284, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) is created to assist in the disarming of Iraq. The new body replaces the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM). UNMOVIC is deliberately designed to prevent infiltration by spies of the UN Security Council member states, specifically the US and Britain. This had been a problem with its predecessor, UNSCOM. The UN diminishes the role of Americans in the new commission by abolishing the powerful office of deputy chairman, which had always been held by an American, and by appointing non-Americans to important positions. In the new inspections body, "The highest-ranking American in the agency now has a relatively lowly job, in charge of the training division." A Chinese official holds the senior "activity evaluation" position and a Russian official is in charge of "liaising with foreign governments and companies." Another reform is that the inspectors will use commercial satellite companies, instead of US spy satellites, to monitor Iraq's activities. [The Times, 9/18/02]
2000
US intelligence learns from the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) that Iraq has made arrangements to purchase tubes, made of 7075-T6 aluminum, from China through Garry Cordukes, the director of the Australian company International Aluminum Supply. The company is associated with Kam Kiu Propriety Limited, a subsidiary of the Chinese company that will manufacture the aluminum tubes. Concerned that the tubes may be related to Iraqi efforts to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program, an Australian intelligence agent contacts Cordukes to obtain a sample of the tubes for examination. A CIA agent, Joe T., is said to have played a significant part in this discovery. [Australian Broadcasting Corporation; Washington Post, 8/10/03 Sources: Unnamed US intelligence, US administration, and/or UN inspectors]
People and organizations involved: Joe T.
2000-2002
The State Department begins funding the Iraqi National Congress' "information collection" program to the tune of $150,000 per month. The program is part of the US government's larger goal of effecting a regime change in Iraq (see October 31, 1998). According to the agreement between the State Department and the INC, the group is permitted to use the money to "implement a public information campaign to communicate with Iraqis inside and outside of Iraq and also to promulgate its message to the international community at large." The INC is prohibited from engaging in activities "associated with, or that could appear to be associated with, attempting to influence the policies of the United States Government or Congress or propagandizing the American people." But according to Francis Brooke, an INC spokesman, some of the State Department's funds are used to finance the expenses of Iraqi defectors who serve as the sources for several US news stories. Brookes claims that there are "no restrictions" on the use of US federal funds to make defectors available to the media. Another Chalabi spokesman will say: "The INC paid some living and travel expenses of defectors with USG funds. None of these expenses was related to meeting journalists." He adds that the INC "did not violate any US laws." [Newsweek, 4/5/2004]
People and organizations involved: Francis Brooke, Iraqi National Congress, US Department of State
2000
Former CIA director James Woolsey serves as a corporate officer for the Iraqi National Congress Support Foundation which manages the Iraqi National Congress' US funding. Also during this time, Woolsey and his former law firm, Shea and Gardner, provide the INC and Iraqi exiles with pro bono work. [Knight Ridder, 7/16/04]
People and organizations involved: Iraqi National Congress, Shea and Gardner, James Woolsey
2000
During the 2000 presidential campaign, the Republican Party calls for "a comprehensive plan for the removal of Saddam Hussein." Similarly, the Democratic Party's platform supports using "America's military might against Iraq when and where it is necessary." [Project for the New American Century, 7/6/00; Strategic Affairs. 11/1/00; NewsMax, 2/3/01; Democratic National Committee, 2000 Platform, pg 46; Republican National Committee, 2000 Platform Sources: Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee]
People and organizations involved: Republican National Committee, Democratic National Committee
2000
In his book, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership, neoconservative Michael Ledeen measures modern leaders against Machiavelli's rules for leadership and concludes that "[e]ven after a half a millennium, Machiavelli's advice to leaders is as contemporary as tomorrow." [Ledeen, 2000, pp 185] He laments that contemporary Western leaders, "like their counterparts in the rest of the world, have fallen short of Machiavelli's standards." [Ledeen, 2000, pp 187] According to Ledeen, "f new and more virtuous leaders do not emerge, it is only a matter of time before we are either dominated by our enemies or sink into a more profound crisis." [Ledeen, 2000, pp 187] Such a situation, he explains, would put the US in the "same desperate crisis that drove Machiavelli to call for a new dictator to set things aright." He adds, "In either case, we need Machiavellian wisdom and leadership." [Ledeen, 2000, pp 188] Throughout the book Ledeen highlights certain qualities that he believes make strong leaders. A leader "must be prepared to fight at all times," he writes, and must be of "manly vigor." Women, he says, are rarely strong leaders because women generally cannot achieve virtue for they lack the "physical wherewithal and the passionate desire to achieve" military glory. To Ledeen, the ends may justify the means. In some situations, "n order to achieve the most noble accomplishments, the leader may have to ?'enter into evil.' " [Ledeen, 2000, pp 90] According to Ledeen, the Christian god sanctions this view. Machiavelli, he notes approvingly, wrote: "I believe that the greatest good that one can do, and the most gratifying to God is that which one does for one's country." Ledeen thus adds: "Since it is the highest good, the defense of the country is one of those extreme situation in which a leader is justified in committing evil." [Ledeen, 2000, pp 117]
People and organizations involved: Michael Ledeen
Early 2000
Antonio Nucera, deputy chief of the SISMI center in Viale Pasteur in Rome, telephones Rocco Martino, an Italian information peddler and former SISMI agent and tells Martino of a SISMI intelligence asset working in the Niger Embassy in Rome who is in need of money and who can provide him with documents to sell. [La Repubblica, 10/24/2005; Il Giornale, 11/6/2005; Il Giornale, 9/21/2004; Sunday Times, 8/1/04; Financial Times, 8/2/04 Sources: Antonio Nucera, Rocco Martino] According to Martino, "SISMI wanted me to pass on the documents but they didn't want anyone to know they had been involved." [Financial Times, 8/2/04; Sunday Times, 8/1/04]
People and organizations involved: SISMI, Antonio Nucera, Rocco Martino
March 2000
Rocco Martino, an Italian information peddler and former SISMI agent, meets with an Italian intelligence source who is an employee at the Niger embassy in Rome. The employee is a 60-year-old lady known only as "La Signora." What happens next is not clear. [La Repubblica, 10/24/2005; Sunday Times, 8/1/04; Financial Times, 8/2/04; Talking Points Memo, 11/10/2005]
According to Rocco Martino - Over the next several months, La Signora provides Martino with numerous documents. First comes a "codebook," then a dossier, which includes a mixture of fake and genuine documents, and then finally, a purported agreement between Niger and Iraq on the sale of 500 tons of uranium oxide, also known as "yellowcake." [Talking Points Memo, 11/10/2005]
According to La Repubblica - With the blessing of Antonio Nucera, the deputy chief of the SISMI center in Viale Pasteur in Rome, Martino and La Signora hatch a plan to break into the Niger embassy (see January 2, 2001) to steal material that could be used to create a collection of forged documents that Martino would then sell to French intelligence. They reportedly solicit the help of Nigerien First Embassy Counselor Zakaria Yaou Maiga. [La Repubblica, 10/24/2005]
People and organizations involved: Zakaria Yaou Maiga, Antonio Nucera, Rocco Martino
May 2000
Jose Bustani is reelected to the position of director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for the 2001-2005 term by a unanimous vote. [Associated Press, 6/5/2005]
People and organizations involved: Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, Jose M. Bustani
(May 17, 2000)
Presidential candidate George W. Bush allegedly tells Osama Siblani, publisher of the Arab American newspaper, that if he becomes president he will remove Saddam Hussein from power. "He told me that he was going to take him out, " Siblani says in a radio interview on Democracy Now! almost five years later. Siblani will also recall that Bush "wanted to go to Iraq to search for weapons of mass destruction, and he considered the regime an imminent and gathering threat against the United States." As Siblani will later note, as a presidential candidate Bush has no access to classified intelligence on Iraqi weapons programs. [Democracy Now!, 3/11/05 Sources: Osama Siblani]
People and organizations involved: George W. Bush, Osama Siblani
September 2000
People involved in the 2000 PNAC report (from top left): Vice President Cheney, Florida Governor Jeb Bush, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Cheney Chief of Staff I. Lewis Libby, Undersecretary of State John Bolton, Undersecretary of Defense Dov Zakheim, and author Eliot Cohen.
PNAC drafts a strategy document, "Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century," for George W. Bush's team before the 2000 Presidential election. The document was commissioned by future Vice President Cheney, future Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, future Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Florida Governor Jeb Bush (Bush's brother), and future Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby. [Sources: Rebuilding America's Defenses]
The document outlines a "blueprint for maintaining global US preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests."
PNAC states further: "The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein."
PNAC calls for the control of space through a new "US Space Forces," the political control of the Internet, and the subversion of any growth in political power of even close allies, and advocates "regime change" in China, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran, and other countries.
It also mentions that "advanced forms of biological warfare that can ?'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool."
However, PNAC complains that thes changes are likely to take a long time, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event?-like a new Pearl Harbor." [Los Angeles Times, 1/12/03] Notably, while Cheney commissioned this plan (along with other future key leaders of the Bush administration), he defends Bush's position of maintaining Clinton's policy not to attack Iraq during an NBC interview in the midst of the 2000 presidential campaign, asserting that the US should not act as though "we were an imperialist power, willy-nilly moving into capitals in that part of the world, taking down governments." [Washington Post, 1/12/02] A British member of Parliament will later say of the report: "This is a blueprint for US world domination?-a new world order of their making. These are the thought processes of fantasist Americans who want to control the world." [Sunday Herald, 9/7/02] Both PNAC and its strategy plan for Bush are almost virtually ignored by the media until a few weeks before the start of the Iraq war (see February-March 20, 2003).
People and organizations involved: Aaron Friedberg, Steve Forbes, Elliott Abrams, Francis Fukuyama, Norman Podhoretz, Henry S. Rowen, Vin Weber, Eliot A. Cohen, Hasam Amin, William J. Bennett, Midge Decter, George Weigel, John Ellis ("Jeb") Bush, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Project for the New American Century, Paula J. Dobriansky, Frank Gaffney, Donald Kagan, Steve Rosen, Saddam Hussein, Peter Rodman, Zalmay M. Khalilzad, Dan Quayle, Syria, China, United States, Lybia, North Korea, Iraq, Fred C. Ikle
September 2000
Chalabi's brothers, Jawad and Hazem, are convicted and sentenced in absentia by a Geneva court for fabricating fake documents. [CounterPunch, 5/20/2004]
People and organizations involved: Hazem Chalabi, Jawad Chalabi
September 2000
The neoconservative think tank Project for the New American Century writes a "blueprint" for the "creation of a ?'global Pax Americana' " (see also June 3, 1997). The document, titled, Rebuilding America's Defenses: Strategies, Forces and Resources for a New Century, was written for the Bush team even before the 2000 Presidential election. It was written for future Vice President Cheney, future Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, future Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Florida Governor and President Bush's brother Jeb Bush, and future Vice President Cheney's Chief of Staff Lewis Libby. The report calls itself a "blueprint for maintaining global US preeminence, precluding the rise of a great power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests." The plan shows that the Bush team intended to take military control of Persian Gulf oil whether or not Saddam Hussein was in power and should retain control of the region even if there is no threat. It says: "The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein." The report calls for the control of space through a new "US Space Forces," the political control of the internet, the subversion of any growth in political power of even close allies, and advocates "regime change" in China, North Korea, Libya, Syria, Iran and other countries. It also mentions that "advanced forms of biological warfare that can ?'target' specific genotypes may transform biological warfare from the realm of terror to a politically useful tool." (see also Spring 2001 and April 2001 (D)). [Sunday Herald, 9/7/02 Sources: Rebuilding America's Defenses] However, the report complains that these changes are likely to take a long time, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event?-like a new Pearl Harbor." [Los Angeles Times, 1/12/03] In an NBC interview at about the same time, Vice Presidential candidate Cheney defends Bush Jr.'s position of maintaining Clinton's policy not to attack Iraq because the US should not act as though "we were an imperialist power, willy-nilly moving into capitals in that part of the world, taking down governments." [Washington Post, 1/12/02] This report and the Project for the New American Century generally are mostly ignored until a few weeks before the start of the Iraq war (see February-March 20, 2003).
People and organizations involved: William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton, Donald Rumsfeld, Roger Barnett, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Alvin Bernstein, John Ellis ("Jeb") Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Stephen A. Cambone, Eliot A. Cohen, Barry Watts, Abram Shulsky, Gary Schmitt, Steve Rosen, Dov S. Zakheim, Michael Vickers, Mackubin Owens, Phil Meilinger, Dan Goure, Donald Kagan, David Fautua, Devon Gaffney Cross, Thomas Donnelly, David Epstein, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby, Paul Wolfowitz, Robert Martinage, James Lasswell, Mark P. Lagon, Robert Kagan, Fred Kagan, William Kristol, Robert Killebrew Additional Info
Commentaries
Tam Dalyel
"This is garbage from right-wing think-tanks stuffed with chicken-hawks?-men who have never seen the horror of war but are in love with the idea of war. Men like Cheney, who were draft-dodgers in the Vietnam war.... This is a blueprint for US world domination?-a new world order of their making. These are the thought processes of fantasist Americans who want to control the world. I am appalled that a British Labour Prime Minister should have got into bed with a crew which has this moral standing." ?- September 2000 [Sunday Herald, 9/7/02]
October 5, 2000
During the vice presidential debates, both Joe Lieberman and Dick Cheney advocate a tough stance toward Saddam Hussein. Lieberman says he and Gore would continue to support Iraqi opposition groups "until the Iraqi people rise up and do what the people of Serbia have done in the last few days: get rid of a despot." Cheney says it might be necessary "to take military action to forcibly remove Saddam from power." [CATO Daily Dispatch, 10/6/2000]
People and organizations involved: George W. Bush, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Joseph Lieberman
October 25, 2000
Congress substantially increases its support for Iraqi opposition organizations, more than doubling the groups' funding to $25 million for 2001. Of this amount, $18 million is specifically designated for the Iraqi National Congress: $12 million for "food, medicine, and other humanitarian assistance," and $6 million for the "production and broadcasting inside Iraq of radio and satellite television programming." In addition, $2 million is allocated for groups and activities seeking the prosecution of Saddam Hussein, while the remaining $5 million is "to support efforts to bring about political transition in Iraq." [The Library of Congress Thomas Database, n.d. Sources: Public Law 106-429]
People and organizations involved: William Jefferson ("Bill") Clinton, Iraqi National Congress
November 1, 2000
In an op-ed piece published by the Washington Times, David Wurmser of the American Enterprise Institute calls on the US and Israel to "broaden" the conflict in the Middle East. The US, he says, needs "to strike fatally, not merely disarm, the centers of radicalism in the region?-the regimes of Damascus, Baghdad, Tripoli, Tehran, and Gaza" ?- in order to "reestablish the recognition that fighting with either the United States or Israel is suicidal." This is necessary, according to Wurmser, because the policies of the US and Israel during the last decade have strengthened Arab radicalism in the Middle East. Wurmser complains that the two countries have mistakenly identified the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and their own behavior as the primary causes of anti-Israeli and anti-American violence instead of focusing on what he claims are the real sources of resentment among Arab leaders?-Israeli and American values. "Few anti-American outbursts or Arab-Israeli confrontations initially have much to do with Israel's or America's behavior; they have more to do with what these two countries are: free societies," Wurmser writes. "These upheavals originate in the conditions of Arab politics, specifically in the requirements of tyrannies to seek external conflict to sustain internal repression. ... A regime built on opposition to freedom will view free nations, such as the United States and Israel, as mortal threats." The US and Israeli failure to grasp this reality, along with the Clinton administration's reluctance to remove Saddam from power, according to Wurmser, has only empowered Arab radicalism. The answer, he argues, is to forcefully reassert US and Israeli power. [Washington Times, 11/1/2000]
People and organizations involved: David Wurmser
After November 2000
After the 2000 Presidential Election, Bush's White House political adviser, Karl Rove, tells neoconservative Michael Ledeen "Anytime you have a good idea, tell me." From that point on, according to a Washington Post interview with Ledeen, every month or six weeks, Ledeen offers Rove "something you should be thinking about." On more than one occasion, ideas faxed to Rove by Ledeen, "become official policy or rhetoric," the Post reports. [Washington Post, 3/10/2003]
People and organizations involved: Karl Rove, Michael Ledeen
December 16, 2000
President-elect George W. Bush announces his nomination of Powell to the position of Secretary of State. Powell, in his remarks, suggests that the US might have to "confront" Saddam Hussein. Powell says: "Saddam Hussein is sitting on a failed regime that is not going to be around in a few years' time. The world is going to leave him behind and that regime behind as the world marches to new drummers, drummers of democracy and the free enterprise system. And I don't know what it will take to bring him to his senses. But we are in the strong position. He is in the weak position. And I think it is possible to re-energize those sanctions and to continue to contain him and then confront him, should that become necessary again." [Journal of the Air Force Association, 2/2001]
People and organizations involved: Colin Powell, George W. Bush
(Between Late 2000 and September 11, 2001)
According to an October 2005 report by the Italian weekly La Repubblica, official stamps and letterhead stolen (see January 2, 2001) from the Niger embassy are used to fabricate a set of forged documents implicating Iraq in an attempt to purchase 500 tons of uranium oxide, also known as "yellowcake," from Niger. [La Repubblica, 10/24/2005; Corriere della Sera, date unknown, cited in Talking Points Memo, 10/31/03; New Yorker, 10/20/03; Agence France Presse, 7/19/03; Reuters, 7/19/03 Sources: Unnamed Senior US intelligence officials] Material taken from real SISMI documents from the 1980s concerning Iraq's yellowcake purchases from Niger during that period are also incorporated into the set of forged documents. [La Repubblica, 10/24/2005; San Francisco Chronicle, 10/30/2005] It is not clear who precisely forges the documents. La Repubblica, in a 2005 article, seems to imply that the deed is done by Rocco Martino, an Italian information peddler, and Antonio Nucera, the deputy chief of the SISMI center in Viale Pasteur in Rome. [La Repubblica, 10/24/2005] An August 2004 report in the Financial Times, however, reports that according to Martino, "Italian foreign intelligence service, the SISMI, had forged the documents and had arranged for them to be passed to him by an official of Niger's embassy in Rome (see March 2000)." [Financial Times, 8/2/04]
People and organizations involved: Antonio Nucera, Rocco Martino, SISMI, France
Early 2001
Shortly after Bush is inaugurated into office, Greg Thielmann, an analyst for the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), is appointed to serve as the intelligence liaison to John Bolton. But Thielmann's intelligence briefings do not support Bolton's assumptions about Iraq, and Thielmann is soon barred from attending the meetings. According to Thielmann: "Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear. I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ?'The undersecretary doesn't need you to attend this meeting anymore. The undersecretary wants to keep this in the family.'" [New Yorker, 10/20/03 Sources: Greg Thielmann]
People and organizations involved: Bureau of Intelligence and Research, Greg Thielmann, John R. Bolton Additional Info
Statements
John R. Bolton
John Bolton claimed that Greg Thielmann had "invited himself" to his daily staff meetings, while Thielmann had told Seymour Hersh he had been assigned the duty. Bolton explained: "This was my meeting with the four assistant secretaries who report to me, in preparation for the Secretary's 8:30 a.m. staff meeting. This was within my family of bureaus. There was no place for INR or anyone else?-the Human Resources Bureau or the Office of Foreign Buildings." ?- October 2003 [New Yorker, 10/20/03]
"I found that there was lots of stuff that I wasn't getting and that the INR analysts weren't including. I didn't want it filtered. I wanted to see everything?-to be fully informed. If that puts someone's nose out of joint, sorry about that." ?- October 2003 [New Yorker, 10/20/03]
Greg Thielmann
"Bolton seemed to be troubled because INR was not telling him what he wanted to hear. I was intercepted at the door of his office and told, ?'The Under-Secretary doesn't need you to attend this meeting anymore' ," he was told by one of Bolton's aides. "The Under-Secretary wants to keep this in the family." To ensure that Bolton received the intelligence he wanted, explained Thielmann, "He surrounded himself with a hand-chosen group of loyalists, and found a way to get CIA information directly." ?- October 2003 [New Yorker, 10/20/03]
2001
US Secretary of State Colin Powell sends a letter of appreciation to Jose Bustani, head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, commending him for his "impressive" work. [Associated Press, 6/5/2005; Guardian, 4/16/2002]
People and organizations involved: Colin Powell, Jose M. Bustani
