Posted on 22-7-2003
The
Crime and the Cover-Up
By William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Perspective, 21 July
2003
The scandal axiom in Washington states that it is not the crime
that destroys you, but the cover-up. Today in Washington you
can hear terms like 'Iraqgate' and 'Weaponsgate' bandied about,
but such obtuse labels do not provide an explanation for the
profound movements that are taking place.
Clearly, there is a scandal brewing over the Iraq war and the
Bush administration claims of Iraqi weapons arsenals that led
to the shooting. Clearly, there is a cover-up taking place.
Yet this instance, the crimes that have led to the cover-up
are worse by orders of magnitude than the cover-up itself.
The simple fact is that America went to war in Iraq because
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza
Rice and virtually every other public face within this administration
vowed that Iraq had vast stockpiles of chemical, biological
and nuclear weapons. America went to war because these people
vowed that Iraq had direct connections to al Qaeda, and by inference
to the attacks of September 11.
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves
no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal
some of the most lethal weapons ever devised," said Bush
on March 17, 2003.
"We know now that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire
nuclear weapons," said Cheney on August 26, 2002.
"There is no doubt'' that Saddam Hussein ''has chemical
weapons stocks,'' said Powell to FOX News on September 8, 2002.
"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications,
and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein
aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaeda,"
said Bush in his State of the Union address. On September 26,
2002, Don Rumsfeld laid the groundwork for Bush's statement
by claiming that America had "bulletproof" evidence
of Iraqi involvement with al Qaeda.
These public statements, augmented by hundreds more in the same
vein, stoked fears within an already shellshocked American populace
that Iraqi nuclear weapons and anthrax would come raining out
of the sky at any moment, unless something was done. This same
information was delivered in dire tones to Congress, which voted
for war on Iraq based almost exclusively on the testimony of
CIA Director George Tenet.
None of it was true. Not one ounce of chemical, biological or
nuclear weaponry has been found in Iraq in the 82 days since
"hostilities ceased" on May 1, 2003. Not one ounce
of chemical, biological or nuclear weaponry has been found in
Iraq in the 124 days since the shooting in Iraq officially started
on March 19, 2003. Not one ounce of chemical, biological or
nuclear weaponry has been found in Iraq in the 230 days since
the UNMOVIC weapons inspections began in Iraq in late November
of 2002. No proof whatsoever of Iraqi connections to al Qaeda
has been established.
Recently, the scandal over the missing Iraq weapons and the
Bush administration claims has focused on whether or not Iraq
was trying to procure uranium "yellow cake" from Niger
in order to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program. The last
two weeks have shown decisively that the Bush administration
used manufactured evidence, which had been denounced from virtually
all corners of the American intelligence community, to justify
their war. The administration's explanation for this has changed
by the hour - They weren't told by the CIA, and then they were
told but Bush and Cheney never heard about it, but it was only
sixteen words in one speech, so everybody calm down.
No one is calming down. When the President of the United States
terrifies the American people in his constitutionally-mandated
State of the Union speech with nuclear threats based upon evidence
that was universally known to be shoddily forged garbage, no
one should calm down. When he uses that terror to make war on
a nation that was no threat to America, no one should calm down.
When over 200 American soldiers and thousands of innocent Iraqi
civilians die because of this, no one should calm down. When
that grisly body count rises every single day, no one should
calm down.
The Niger nuclear forgery scandal is merely an accent in this
criminal symphony. It has become all too clear that a small
cadre of ultra-conservative hawks within the administration
led us to where we are today with absolutely no oversight from
the rest of the government. This group managed the run-up to
war by creating demonstrably exaggerated interpretations of
intelligence reports, and used 'insider data' from people with
many good reasons to help lie America into this war.
The Office of Special Plans, or OSP, was created by Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld specifically to second-guess and reinterpret
intelligence data to justify war in Iraq. The OSP was staffed
by rank amateurs, civilians whose ideological pedigree suited
Rumsfeld and his cabal of hawks. Though this group was on no
government payroll and endured no Congressional oversight, their
information and interpretations managed to prevail over the
data being provided by the State Department and CIA. This group
was able to accomplish this incredible feat due to devoted patronage
from high-ranking ultra-conservatives within the administration,
including Vice-President Cheney.
The highest levels of the OSP were staffed by heavy-hitters
like Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas J. Feith,
and William Luti, a former Navy officer who worked for Cheney
before joining the Pentagon. These two men, along with their
civilian advisors, worked according to a strategy that they
hoped would recreate Iraq into an Israeli ally, destroy a potential
threat to Persian Gulf oil trade, and wrap U.S. allies around
Iran. The State Department and CIA saw this plan as being badly
flawed and based upon profoundly questionable intelligence.
The OSP responded to these criticisms by cutting State and CIA
completely out of the loop. By the time the war came, nearly
all the data used to justify the action to the American people
was coming from the OSP. The American intelligence community
had been totally usurped.
When the OSP wanted to change or exaggerate evidence of Iraqi
weapons capabilities, they sent Vice President Cheney to CIA
headquarters on unprecedented visits where he demanded "forward-leaning"
interpretations of the evidence. When Cheney was unable to go
to the CIA, his chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby,
went in his place.
On three occasions, former congressman Newt Gingrich visited
CIA in his capacity as a "consultant" for ultra-conservative
hawk Richard Perle and his Defense Policy Board. According to
the accounts of these visits, Gingrich browbeat the analysts
to toughen up their assessments of the dangers posed by Hussein.
He was allowed access to the CIA and the analysts because he
was a known emissary of the OSP.
The main OSP source of data on Iraqi weapons, and on the manner
in which the Iraqi people would greet their 'liberators,' was
Ahmad Chalabi. Chalabi was the head of the Iraqi National Congress,
an exile group seeking since 1997 the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
Chalabi had been hand-picked by Don Rumsfeld to be the leader
of Iraq after the removal of Saddam Hussein, despite the fact
that he had been convicted in 1992 of 32 counts of bank fraud
by a Jordanian court and sentenced in absentia to 22 years in
prison. It apparently never occurred to Rumsfeld and the OSP
that Chalabi had a lot of reasons to lie. It seems they were
too enamored of the data he was providing, because that data
fully justified the course of action they had been set upon
since September 11, 2001.
Chalabi was the main source behind claims that Iraq had connections
to al Qaeda. Chalabi was the main source behind claims that
Iraq was stockpiling weapons of mass destruction. Chalabi was
the main source behind claims that the Iraqi people would rise
up and embrace their American invaders. Chalabi's claims on
this last matter are the main reason post-war Iraq is in complete
chaos, because Rumsfeld assumed the logistics for repairing
Iraq would be simple - The joyful Iraqis would do it for him.
According to a story entitled "Planners Faulted in Iraq
Chaos" by Knight-Ridder reporters Jonathan Landay and Warren
Strobel, published on July 13, Chalabi proved to be a dangerous
wild card. Chalabi's association with and influence over the
OSP, however, continued unabated:
"The Chalabi scheme was dealt another major blow in February,
a month before the war started, when U.S. intelligence agencies
monitored him conferring with hard-line Islamic leaders in Tehran,
Iran, a State Department official said. About that time, an
Iraqi Shiite militia that was based in Iran and known as the
Badr Brigade began moving into northern Iraq, setting off alarm
bells in Washington. Cheney, once a strong Chalabi backer, ordered
the Pentagon to curb its support for the exiles, the official
said. Yet Chalabi continued to receive Pentagon assistance,
including backing for a 700-man paramilitary unit. The U.S.
military flew Chalabi and his men at the height of the war from
the safety of northern Iraq to an air base outside the southern
city of Nasiriyah in expectation he would soon take power."
Chalabi never took power. Instead, Paul Bremer was installed
as the American proconsul in Iraq, ostensibly with orders to
bring stability and liberty to the country. This last aspect
is the final lie, the most repugnant crime, perpetrated against
the civilians of that ravaged nation.
I spoke last week with a woman named Jodie Evans, long-time
peace activist and organizer of a group called the International
Occupation Watch Center, or IOWC. The purpose of the IOWC is
to stand as watchdogs in Iraq over the corporate contracts being
doled out, and to view in person what is happening to the Iraqi
people. "I think that if you were against the war, then
you need to be there," said Evans, "because there
is no one in Iraq who is for the Iraqi people, and the people
know it. They know it."
Evans had just returned from Baghdad. Upon her arrival to the
city, she saw the demonstrable chaos caused by the war, and
by the abject failure to repair the country in the aftermath.
"It was 120 degrees, it was dusty, the air had a haze that
makes everything gray," said Evans. "The buildings
you see on the road are bombed out. In some, you can see the
fire coming up. In some, you only see the scaffolding of contorted
metal. We got across our bridge and turned right onto the street
we know so well, the one we've stayed on, and every building
was either boarded up or bombed out, including the United Nations
DP. It was all bombed in, the windows were black from the fire."
"Immediately after we arrived," said Evans, "we
hear that it is not only worse than before the war. It is worse
than during the war. People are upset, people are angry. There
were lots of stories about how the Americans are doing this
on purpose. A month after the '91 war, which was much worse
than this one, everything was back and working. Now, the people
live in this chaos they can't even imagine. People can't go
outside. Women haven't left their homes. Lots of people haven't
come back from Syria or Kuwait or wherever they fled to get
away from the bombing, because life in Iraq is unlivable. There
is 65% unemployment, and even the doctors and nurses and teachers
who are going to work don't get paid, so there's no money."
Evans met a number of Americans in Iraq who are part of the
'rebuilding process.' One such person was in the Compound, a
guarded palace that is now home to Bremer's office and staff
along with a number of other groups. The overall organization
is called the Iraqi Assistance Center, or IAC. The man Evans
met was a professor of religion and political theory at a religious
college in America. He explained that his job was to collect
intelligence for Bremer.
"That professor I spoke to, the one doing intelligence
for Bremer, I told him that I had spoken to countless Iraqis
and all of them felt this chaos was happening on purpose,"
said Evans. "He basically said this was true, that chaos
was good, and out of chaos comes order. So what the Iraqis were
saying - that this madness was all on purpose - this intelligence
guy didn't discredit. He said, 'If you keep them hungry, they'll
do anything for us.'"
"I met the man who was hired to create a new civil government
in Baghdad, to bring Baghdad back to order," said Evans.
"His name was Gerald Lawson. I asked him what his background
was that allowed him to get this job. He said he was in the
Atlanta Police for 30 years. I asked how this gave him the ability
to create a stable, civil government. He said he was a manager.
I asked him what he knew about Iraqis. He knew nothing, and
didn't care to know anything. He didn't know their history,
their government, didn't speak a word of Arabic and didn't care
to learn. This guy doesn't work for the American government,
doesn't work for the State Department, and doesn't work for
the CPA. He works for a corporation created by ex-Generals.
Their job is to create the new Iraqi government structure."
"We met the man whose job is to make sure the hospitals
have what they need," said Evans. "He is a veterinarian.
We met a British guy who showed up at the Compound gates one
day and said he was a volunteer who wanted to help. The next
day he was named the head of rubbish control in Baghdad, which
is a huge problem there because there is garbage all over the
street. I asked him what he had been doing with his time. He
said he'd been hanging out at Odai's palace playing with the
lions and the cheetahs. I met the guy in charge of designing
the airport, where major jumbo jets are supposed to land. He
had never designed an airport before."
"Another man I spoke to associated with this process is
named Don Munson," said Evans. "His job is civilian
affairs policy. He said to me, 'We are replacing one dictatorship
with another.' He's there for two years, and he works in the
palace on the first floor."
"Remember," said Evans, "that the first thing
America did was to fire 80,000 police officers. These guys weren't
associated with the Hussein regime. That's like connecting a
cop in LA to the Bush administration. All the people I've talked
to over there, the ambassadors and others, said they warned
Bremer not to do that. The cops knew who the criminals were,
and 80,000 cops are gone. So now there are these little mafias
that run neighborhoods. With no other work and no way to survive,
people are going to become criminals. The borders are wide open
- we didn't even get stopped when we came in - so everything
is just flowing into Iraq."
"A friend of mine's husband is an ambassador," said
Evans. "I asked him if this was normal operating procedure.
He said that, basically, no one will work on this Iraq project
who has any respect for their work or career, because it is
so clearly a farce. He said that later we will go in after these
guys have blown it, but right now with Bremer there it is a
farce. Even the press is over there are just shaking their heads
and asking, can anyone fail so badly? Can anybody make so many
mistakes? You can't imagine they can be so dumb."
"One Iraqi woman I spoke to," said Evans, "said
she feels like Iraq is a wounded animal, and everyone is coming
in to take their piece of flesh."
The cover-up is one thing, the crime is another. The Bush administration,
mainly in the form of Rumsfeld's Office of Special Plans, disregarded
any and all intelligence which said Iraq was no threat.
They supplanted reliable data with a slew of lies and exaggerations
that were fed daily to the American people and Congress, and
got their war. In the aftermath, nothing is being done for the
millions of Iraqi civilians who suffer daily under their newfound
'liberty.'
American soldiers continue to die. Two more, men from the 101st
Airborne, were killed early Sunday when their convoy was attacked
with rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire. "You
have these young American soldiers sitting in turrets,"
said Jodie Evans, "just sitting ducks for the rage and
frustration and vengeance that is coming out."
This is a crime without peer in the annals of American history.
The cover-up currently underway must not be allowed to succeed.
When the American government gets hijacked by extremists like
the men staffing the Office of Special Plans, when intelligence
data stating flatly that Iraq presents no threat to America
is disregarded or exaggerated because the truth does not fit
ideological desires, when Congress is lied to, when the American
people are lied to, when innocent civilians at the sharp end
of these lies are left to rot in the dust and the bomb craters
on purpose, when American soldiers are shot down in the street
because of these lies, no kind of cover-up can be allowed to
succeed
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