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American Conservative Wants Us to Believe WMD Forgery was Work of Pentagon, not CIA. Should We?

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Meg White

Philip Giraldi wrote on the blog for The American Conservative yesterday that he has an unnamed source who says that Ron Suskind's assertion about the forged WMD document came from Pentagon official Doug Feith and not the CIA. It sort of makes sense when you consider the logic Giraldi uses to back his anonymous source up:

"Tenet is for once telling the truth when he states that he would not have undermined himself by preparing such a document while at the same time insisting publicly that there was no connection between Saddam and al-Qaeda. Richer and Maguire have both denied that they were involved with the forgery and it should also be noted that preparation of such a document to mislead the media is illegal and they could have wound up in jail.

My source also notes that Dick Cheney, who was behind the forgery, hated and mistrusted the Agency and would not have used it for such a sensitive assignment."

I guess it doesn't matter where the forged letter came from; our government lied to us either way.  But still, something about it rubbed me the wrong way. 

Maybe it was the fact that Giraldi wrote about it in a tiny blog entry that didn't even add up to 300 words instead of exposing this revelation in a full-blown story. 

Maybe it was Giraldi's insistence that his anonymous source is "extremely reliable and well placed" and that Giraldi felt the need to make the source sound plausible with the background he provided. Seems as though he doth protest too much.

Maybe it's the idea that two senior CIA officers would implicate themselves for no good reason. If the Pulitzer Prize winning Suskind is to be believed, Robert Richer and John Maguire are on tape, on the record about their involvement in the forgery. Why would he tell the world he had the tapes if he didn't? He knows he'll have to produce them eventually. Giraldi won't have to back up his claim because it's not getting nearly as much media attention.

Also, it seems rather convenient to dump responsibility for the whole mess on Feith, a guy well-known to have been called the "stupidest guy on the face of the Earth" by Gen. Tommy Franks.

This whole thing is somewhat of an exercise in futility, because it's not like I could prove Giraldi wrong anyway. Now I know why they told us not to use unnamed sources in J school. It's the same reason people use them: irrefutable authority without the nagging burden of responsibility.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS


What does it matter? CIA or Pentagon?

It doesn't. They're both part of the same criminal administration. It just doesn't matter.

Why?

Why is there no sense of outrage in the American public about the criminal acts of the Bush Administration? Have we as a people just become punch drunk and thereby totally apathetic from the sheer magnitude of the criminal acts performed by the present administration and the continual covering up of these crimes? This cabal of scoundrels has become so blatant and contemptuous of law and the Constitution and it seems they really don't care that the public knows.

Bush Legacy: Gunslinger

David Model George Bush’s true legacy may not be truly understood for many years. Domestically he will be remembered as the president who severely weakened the economy, undermined civil liberties, and removed the foundations of democracy. But it is on the international stage where George Bush will some day be compared to a gunslinger in the old West who shot up and practically destroyed two countries while the local sheriff and his deputies trembled in their boots at the thought of trying to stop him and the local judge supported him. President Bush has committed a long list of war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan that has caused unconscionable suffering and deprivation. He has violated the Geneva Conventions, the UN Convention Against Torture, the UN Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, and the UN Charter. Using military force in both Afghanistan and Iraq violated the basic principle of the United Nation’s Charter which established a careful set of guidelines to avoid conflict between two or more nations. The two conditions under which one country may use force against another include defense against an imminent attack and approval of the Security Council after a series of measures, defined in the charter, have been followed in an attempt to avoid a conflict. Neither of the criteria was met when the U.S. attacked Afghanistan and Iraq rendering President Bush guilty of the crime of perpetrating a war of aggression. Attacking civilians and not treating prisoners humanely are expressly prohibited by the Geneva Conventions. Prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq not to mention other countries have been kidnapped, hooded, beaten and detained in inhumane conditions. Close to one million civilians have died during the war and occupation in both countries and the rationale of accidental death can not be invoked to explain such a plethora of deaths. Torturing prisoners and treating them inhumanely violate both the Geneva Conventions and the Convention Against Torture. Holding prisoners and denying them their civil and legal rights also violates international law. The most serious international crime of which George W. is guilty is the crime of genocide. By destroying the infrastructure further after his father and Clinton initially bombed water treatment plants, electrical utilities, irrigation systems etc., killing a further 600,000 people and creating conditions in which four million people became refugees meets the criteria in the Genocide Convention for the crime of genocide. While it may be a long time before the American people are fully aware of his war crimes, the people of Iraq and Afghanistan have experienced the consequences firsthand. http://www.stateofdarkness.com

Help an ignorant Re THUG lican

1. Why do you assume we are bound by the UN Charter? 2. Where is it documented prisoners have been mistreated? 3. Who is the Genocide Convention? 4. Are you advocating for Iraqis or simply condemning Bush? Thanks!

You call yourself a progressive news site

and not a single headline about Cindy Sheehan making the ballot in San Francisco? Don't tell me you're supporting Bush prostitute Nancy Peloser?

Of course they will!

Like most progressives, BuzzFlash will support ANY candidate with a "D" after their name, no matter how vile that candidate might be. When I think of vile candidates, Nancy Pelosi comes immediately to mind. She has been carrying water for the White House since Bush was installed as president. I doubt a Republican could have done any better at giving the neo-cons everything that they wanted.

If McCain should "win" on November 4, you can bet neo-con Nancy and Harry Reid will be on their knees in front of him on November 5. The voting machines haven't changed much so that is a very real possibility, no matter how people vote.

I live in Pelosi's district. I am donating time and money to help send Ms. Pelosi to an early retirement. I want someone in Congress that will stand up for US, not roll over every time that the Republicans or the DLC snap their fingers. I am supporting Cindy Sheehan and I urge everyone to do what they can to help. (http://www.cindyforcongress.org)

Change the Subject... Avoid the Real CRIME

Typical re-THUG-lican tactic, change the subject to deflect attention from the crimes. Observe your re-THUG-lican friends, they all do it. If you stay on topic their heads will explode. It is my kind of cheney "hunting", you know where they think you are their friend, and you hold them under the cage before letting them out to meet their ends. It does speak of my darker side, but it is a sport I love.

forgery

Well, Giraldi's move in blaming someone else in order to discredit Suskind's credibility sounds like a Rove move to me. Something along the lines of what they did to Dan Rather, sort of. Change the subject to who did it instead of what actually was done. Just a thought.

Impeachment

I look at Nancy Pelosi and Hoyer and see pathetic losers protecting subversive traitors from receiving their due justice. They are probably protecting their own self serving interests.

An open investigation of this administration, neocons, the Iraq War, and 9-11 is needed but most Democrats and Republicans will prevent it. It is being squelched because of lying self serving politicians and foreign lobbyists such as AIPAC that don't want Americans to understand the threat to America.

Ron Paul was the only Presidential candidate with guts and honesty that Americans could depend on to defend the USA and its Constitution.

The Constitution was a con job from the start.

The only thing good about it was the Bill of Rights, which is always honored in the breech. The rest of the sick document was written by fat heads who wanted to keep their landed privileges so they could more easily steal from the rest of us. It does absolutely nothing about the corrosive power of money and lies, which deprives us of liberty from birth to death. It gives every smart crook the right to steal, and it deprives us of the right to be free of them. Ron Paul is just another Joker in the same marked deck.

WHO THE HECK CARES WHO DID WHAT?!

ABSOLUTE 197% FELONS ARE RUNNING THE NATION & PROWLING THE WHITEHOUSE. WHO DID THE FORGERY IS A PHONY B.S. QUESTION! the REAL question is now that everyone knows it's a FORGERY; that BUSH LIED ABOUT IT; that he used it to justify his invasion of Iraq & his GENOCIDE 1.3 MILLION IRAQIS & Theft of its oil...what's America gona do? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!

Republicans shoot the clerk. Democrats drive the Getaway Car.

The two party system is one of the most sophisticated hoaxes ever pulled on a gullible people. Two parties of crooks become one party of crooks which becomes no party at all. There is no democracy or equality whatsoever, and yet every stupid dingbat thinks he is free. By all means, lets have the phony indignation followed by more phony investigations and maybe we will even find a patsy or scapegoat or two. But America! For God's sake, get some smarts.