Pentagon says pre-war intel not illegal

[GaryC 7]

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 30 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Some of the

Pentagon's prewar intelligence work, including a contention that the

CIA underplayed the likelihood of al-Qaida connections to

Saddam Hussein, was inappropriate but not illegal, a Defense Department investigation has concluded.

In a report to be presented to Congress on Friday, the department's inspector general said former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith had not engaged in illegal activities through the creation of special offices to review intelligence. Some Democrats also have contended that Feith misled Congress about the basis of the administration's assertions on the threat posed by

Iraq, but the Pentagon investigation did not support that.

Two people familiar with the findings discussed the main points and some details Thursday on condition they not be identified.

The

Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing Friday to receive the findings by Thomas F. Gimble, the Pentagon's acting inspector general. The committee's chairman, Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., has been a leading critic of Feith's role in prewar intelligence activities and has accused him of deceiving Congress.

Levin has asserted that

President Bush took the country to war in Iraq based in part on intelligence assessments — some shaped by Feith's office — that were off base and did not fully reflect the views of the intelligence community.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Levin said the IG report is "very damning" and shows a Pentagon policy shop trying to shape intelligence to prove a link between al-Qaida and Saddam.

"That was the argument that was used to make the sale to the American people about the need to go to war," Levin said. "And the idea that this separate intelligence assessment, which was wrong, which was distorted, which was inappropriate for the reasons given here (by the IG) is something which is highly disturbing."

Levin also said it was a "red herring" to say that he or others in Congress claimed that any of Feith's activities had been illegal. Feith has said the accusation that he misled Congress was, by definition, a claim that he had acted illegally.

Levin in September 2005 asked the inspector general to determine whether Feith's offices' activities were appropriate. If deemed inappropriate, the inspector general should recommend remedial action, Levin said then. Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record), R-Kan., who was chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, separately asked the inspector general to decide on legality as well as appropriateness.

The 2004 report from the Sept. 11 Commission found no evidence of a collaborative relationship between Saddam and

Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror organization before the U.S. invasion.

Asked to comment on the IG's findings, Feith said in a telephone interview that he had not seen the report but was pleased to hear that it concluded his office's activities were neither illegal nor unauthorized. He took strong issue, however, with the IG's finding that some activities had been "inappropriate."

"The policy office has been smeared for years by allegations that its pre-Iraq-war work was somehow `unlawful' or `unauthorized' and that some information it gave to congressional committees was deceptive or misleading," Feith said.

Feith called "bizarre" the inspector general's conclusion that some intelligence activities by the Office of Special Plans, which was created while Feith served as the undersecretary of defense for policy — the top policy position under Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld — were inappropriate but not unauthorized.

"Clearly, the inspector general's office was willing to challenge the policy office and even stretch some points to be able to criticize it," Feith said, adding that he felt this amounted to subjective "quibbling" by the IG.

Feith left his Pentagon post in August 2005 and now teaches at Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service. He has maintained throughout the controversy over the role of the Office of Special Plans, as well as other small groups that were created after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, that their intelligence activities were prudent, authorized and useful in challenging some of the intelligence analysis of the CIA.

At the center of the prewar intelligence controversy was the work of a small number of Pentagon officials from Feith's office and the office of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz who reviewed CIA intelligence analyses and put together their own report. When they briefed Rumsfeld on their report in August 2002 — a period when Vice President

####### Cheney and other administration officials were ratcheting up their warnings about the gravity of the Iraq threat — Rumsfeld directed them to also brief CIA Director George Tenet.

Their presentation, which included assertions about links between al-Qaida and the Iraqi government, contained a criticism that the intelligence community was ignoring or underplaying its own raw reports on such potential links.

The controversy has simmered for several years. The Senate Intelligence Committee included the Office of Special Plans in its investigation into the prewar intelligence on Iraq, but the committee did not finish that portion of its work when it released the first part of its findings in July 2004.

In a dissenting view attached to the committee's report, three Democratic senators, including Levin, said that Pentagon policymakers sought to undermine the analysis of the intelligence community by circumventing the CIA and briefing their own views directly to the White House. This was a particular problem when the spy agencies' judgments did not conform to the administration's dire views on Iraqi links to al-Qaida, the senators said.

Later, two senators — Levin and Pat Roberts, R-Kan. — separately asked the Pentagon's inspector general to review the role of Feith's office. It was not immediately clear whether the intelligence committee would press ahead with its own investigation, or if the inspector general's report would suffice.

In a response last month to a draft of the IG's report, Feith's successor as undersecretary of defense for policy, Eric Edelman, wrote that the activity deemed by the IG to be "inappropriate" was actually "an exercise in alternative thinking" conducted at Wolfowitz's direction.

Edelman wrote that the IG had misinterpreted "what the (Pentagon's) work actually was — namely, a critical assessment by OSD (Office of the Secretary of Defense) for policy purposes of IC (Intelligence Community) reporting and finished IC products on contacts between Iraq and al-Qaida."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070208/ap_on_...on_intelligence

[Heracles 417]

Gary you have opened up a can of worms here.. I can see Steve coming in guns blazing..

[GaryC 7]

Gary you have opened up a can of worms here.. I can see Steve coming in guns blazing..

Hehe, I love to stir him up. It's fun to debate people with such different views than mine. I saw this and thought of Steven. I am sure he will be happy to see it! J/K Steven!

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Some of the Pentagon's prewar intelligence work ... was inappropriate but not illegal

Inappropriate but not illegal is hardly a ringing endorsement.

... former Pentagon policy chief Douglas J. Feith had not engaged in illegal activities through the creation of special offices to review intelligence.

So it was merely 'inappropriate'? Isn't that bad enough, seeing how high the stakes were?

The Senate Armed Services Committee has scheduled a hearing Friday to receive the findings by Thomas F. Gimble, the Pentagon's acting inspector general. The committee's chairman, Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., has been a leading critic of Feith's role in prewar intelligence activities and has accused him of deceiving Congress.

Levin has asserted that President Bush took the country to war in Iraq based in part on intelligence assessments — some shaped by Feith's office — that were off base and did not fully reflect the views of the intelligence community.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Levin said the IG report is "very damning" and shows a Pentagon policy shop trying to shape intelligence to prove a link between al-Qaida and Saddam.

Maybe it did try to shape intelligence, but that is only "inappropriate", not illegal. To those on the right, do you remember "no controlling authority"? This sounds just like that ... except the stakes here are much higher.

Feith called "bizarre" the inspector general's conclusion that some intelligence activities ... were inappropriate but not unauthorized.

Bizarre? LOL.

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Round and round she goes eh?

[Robor007 0]

I don't have the time or energy to tackle a GWB debate tonight so just a quick hit-n-run... Is there anything in there about WMD's?

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

I don't have the time or energy to tackle a GWB debate tonight so just a quick hit-n-run... Is there anything in there about WMD's?

Yeah it says yo momma has 'em.

[GaryC 7]

I don't have the time or energy to tackle a GWB debate tonight so just a quick hit-n-run... Is there anything in there about WMD's?

Aw come on! Lets have some fun tonight!

Honestly guys, I respect all your views on the war. I honestly have fun with the jibs and the jabs we have. I want to make it clear that I have no hard feelings with any of you. It's all in fun!

[Lurker 0]

Look, all you crack heads our there don't know a damn thing. Hell, I don't know a damn thing. The only time we will know something is when the damn intel is finally de-classified in 70 years. So shut your holes and try to believe in a President's judgements.

Nothing like convicting someone before they even look at the evidence. We don't even know what the 100% story is.

All you fanboys just believe in the stupid ####### media who can give a ####### about anybody but thier ratings. You all just gulp that ####### up like it was crack in a candy store.

Ignorance is bliss hookers!!!

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I don't have the time or energy to tackle a GWB debate tonight so just a quick hit-n-run... Is there anything in there about WMD's?

Yeah it says yo momma has 'em.

Word on the street is that your mom wears Persian shoes.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

... no hard feelings with any of you. It's all in fun!

That's commie talk.

[GaryC 7]

... no hard feelings with any of you. It's all in fun!

That's commie talk.

Yeah I am very left of center!!!

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Look, all you crack heads our there don't know a damn thing. Hell, I don't know a damn thing. The only time we will know something is when the damn intel is finally de-classified in 70 years. So shut your holes and try to believe in a President's judgements.

Nothing like convicting someone before they even look at the evidence. We don't even know what the 100% story is.

All you fanboys just believe in the stupid ####### media who can give a ####### about anybody but thier ratings. You all just gulp that ####### up like it was crack in a candy store.

Ignorance is bliss hookers!!!

The filthier the mouth the less convincing the argument...

To summarise your take on this:

1) You know nothing.

2) Shut up.

3) Trust the President (presumably without question).

5) You eat crack

6) You are an ignorant hooker.

Unsurprisingly, I'm not convinced.

[one...two...tree 2,762]

I can't confirm it, but I believe that Gary eats babies. I remember seeing a photo of him holding one up - right before he dipped it in BBQ sauce.

[Lurker 0]

I can't confirm it, but I believe that Gary eats babies. I remember seeing a photo of him holding one up - right before he dipped it in BBQ sauce.

Actually, after we scrape some bacon off the back of your mom, we go home and wrap the babies up in em...then dip in BBQ.