Ron Suskind’s new book has spawned some discussion of a letter he claims was forged by the CIA on the direction of the Bush administration to gin up what he considers to be their fraudulant case for invading Iraq. It’s a little hard to follow, but as far as I can tell Suskind’s story is that the letter linking Saddam Hussein to al Qaeda was written by the CIA on orders from the White House and somehow planted in Baghdad, where it was eventually picked up and published by an unwitting British journalist.
True, Suskind doesn’t have so much in the way of proof, but stay with me here. The plot thickens
Today, Philip Giraldi has come out in The American Conservative with a new twist on the story that has found an approving audience on the left, which has leapt at this venue as a demonstration of broad-based support for his claim. Of course Giraldi is not exclusive to that publication, which has scant claims to being either American or Conservative. He mainly hangs his hat at Antiwar.com. But who cares, because he has a dark and sinister conspiracy to reveal: his theory is that while the letter was indeed a forgery, it didn’t come out of the CIA. Yes, it was a White House project but rather than going to the Agency, Vice President Dick Cheney tasked DoD Undersecretary for Policy Doug Feith’s “Office of Special Plans” with creating the document.
But how does Giraldi actually know this to be the case? He claims he has a CIA “source” who knows about the Office of Special Plans and the workings of the Pentagon. And I hate to ask so many questions, but how does the source know all this? We certainly don’t know. Giraldi does not see fit to grace us with a name, let alone a shred supporting documentation. For all we know, Giraldi is himself the source—or perhaps it would be more appropriate to say Giraldi’s imagination. For until he comes up with some—any—evidence all we have is a cowardly smear that stems out of his vicious anti-war and anti-Semitic hysteria.
This simply cannot stand. Doug Feith is a decent person and a distinguished public servant who has done long and difficult work for our country, and who has recently gone to the trouble of producing a meticulously crafted and documented book, War and Decision, that addresses these very issues. Feith has been willing to go on the record personally and to get his documentation in order to support his claims. You can disagree with the man’s policies or his politics, but anyone who cannot be bothered to do the same due diligence has no place in a fact-based debate. That goes for Ron Suskind, Philip Giraldi and any that peddle their fantasies, such as The Atlantic’s Andrew Sullivan.
Sullivan (unwittingly) demonstrates the pitiful frailty of this house of cards when he worries that “possible errors in Suskind’s reporting will undermine the deeper truth of what he’s pointing out.” Here’s the deal Andrew: When the sources for a story contradict each other and the facts fall apart, there is no “deeper truth.” Rumor? Yes. Innuendo? Certainly. Rubbish? Quite possibly.
But no truth. Shame on you and shame on anyone else who participates in this false and despicable charade.
Steve Maley
Moe Lane
Dan McLaughlin
Neil Stevens
Office of Special Plans
Joe_Schmo (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 2:05PM EST (link)If I remember right, it’s just down hall from the Department of Silly Walks, isn’t it? Seems like I saw that on “the news” a few years ago…
There Ron Suskind goes
Dan McLaughlin (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 2:33PM EST (link)creating his own reality again.
“No compromise with the main purpose, no peace till victory, no pact with unrepentant wrong.” – Winston Churchill
I heard Suskind interviewed on NPR yesterday
Jack_Savage (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 2:52PM EST (link)It was a really interesting interview. I listened to the whole thing, and came away thinking that Suskind really has a template of how the run up to the war happened, and has fit his book neatly into the mold. Cheney is the dark villain, Bush is the rube, and everyone did their bidding, particularly Tenet, without question.
He also said some pretty startling things. He mentioned that the “facts” in his book would be grounds for impeachment of the President, and that he had voluminous recordings of his two main sources for the forged letter story(Richard and McGuire, I believe) that he would be happy to share with congressional committees or investigators who wanted them.
When he was asked about the sources’ flat denials of the story, he gave the excuse that their denials should be parsed further, and that they were not really denials at all. He said that he believed the pressure and intensity of the spotlight had rendered them momentarily weak-kneed and that testifying “under the threat of perjury” would clear their heads and stiffen their spines.
Someone is lying BIG time.
I just know it's all true,
ptort Friday, August 8th at 3:00PM EST (link)I hear The New Republic is about to confirm that the letter was planted by Scott Beauchamp. He has not come forward sooner due a conspiracy between the CIA and Dick Cheney that has him fearful for his life. Wow, it’s fun to make stuff up at of whole cloth.
I...I....confess....
Texas Tom Friday, August 8th at 3:53PM EST (link)I didn’t mean nuthin’ by it. Jes some funnin’ around. Me an’ ma friend Harvey, here. We were jes funnin’.
Don’t beat me…..Pleeeeez don’t beat me! HARVEY DID IT! That no good rabbit… Oh. No cameras or microphones? Fugeddabowdit. You did see nuttin’. Youse guy didn’t hear nuttin’. Capice!?
(Angelo, where’s da Mick?)
I feel more like I do now, than when I got here…Anon. NAF Diego Garcia, BIOT, 1982. Defending Reagan’s America.
The American Conservative
quillen Friday, August 8th at 4:58PM EST (link)Dear Academic Elephant – You clearly don’t know what a conservative is and are a bit confused on what it means to be an American. At one time conservatives believed that going to war was a last resort but the glories of the American imperial venture in Iraq seem to have warped your senses. Our constitution was written precisely to protect us from people like Bush and Cheney for whom the ends justify the means a la Trotsky. Even if you do not like to hear it, a letter was undeniably forged to “prove” that Saddam was tied in with terrorists, which he was not. CIA denies it was involved which just maybe suggests someone else did it. Good citizens should be concerned about the perpetrators, not covering up for criminals in the White House and Defense Department. I will be following up on this story in the next issue of The American Conservative, which is a very good magazine that you really should read in a serious way. By the way, I spent three years in the Army during Vietnam and seventeen years in the CIA working against terrorists. What are your qualifications for denigrating me and implying that I am making things up?-Phil Giraldi
Dear Phil Giraldi: You worked for the CIA
janis (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 5:15PM EST (link)and you don’t know how to Google “Academic Elephant”? No wonder all the intel on Iraq was so off! Quick, look behind you and slightly down–that’s your butt. Now you can find it with both hands.
yes, yes! this certainly answers a lot of questions
David Hinz (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 5:30PM EST (link)all those unanswered questions about the mindnumbingly bad intelligence from the CIA and other “intelligence” agencies (I actually feel a little silly calling them that)
Thanks for clearing up THAT mystery.
The Minority Report — The HinzSight Report — TMRB.tv — MFOB “Miss Tagart, do you know the hallmark of the second-rater? It’s resentment of another man’s achievement.”
Mr. Giraldi
Academic Elephant (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 5:35PM EST (link)Thank you for your service.
My qualifications are not at issue. Please provide any supporting evidence for your allegation that Mr. Feith forged this document.
I'm not sure that's Giraldi there
Caleb Howe (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 5:53PM EST (link)I didn’t see a single screaming “JEEEEWWWWWWWSSSSSSSS!!!!!!” Judging by Giraldi’s record at antiwar.com, this makes quillen’s credentials suspect.
Come now, if you wish to post as Philip Giraldi I insist you keep with his style. Call us all zionist neocon slaves of the great Jewish conspiracy at once!
Caleb Howe (formerly known as absentee)
quick, Doctor, the thorozine
streiff (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 5:56PM EST (link)I have to admit that outside a Ron Paul campaign meeting or a 9/11 Troofer convention I haven’t heard such hogwash.
It would seem that your involvement in Vietnam and the war against terrorism goes a long way to explaining the Fall of Saigon and 9/11.
Have fun on your planet.
“What keeps me here is the reek of beer, the ladies and the craic”
We'll let our readers decide...
rbdwiggins (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 6:06PM EST (link)as to what degree, if any, the American Conservative is actually “conservative,” or if in fact, it’s something else entirely.
From the Magazine’s Mission Statement:
Regarding your allegation that Undersecretary Feith forged the document in question:
Prove it. Provide the source and supporting evidence so we can make our own determination regarding the validity of your allegation.
“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
Millions who supported Buchanan?
JKH1232 (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 6:17PM EST (link)I seem to remember it being more like three guys and a dog. And the dog wanted to vote for someone else, but, hey, a hound’s gotta eat, right?
Those darned "Butterfly Ballots"... n/t
rbdwiggins (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 6:46PM EST (link)“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn’t so.” – Ronald Reagan
Feith did not forge the document, y'all
Jack_Savage (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 7:51PM EST (link)How is everyone overlooking the obvious culprit, Karl Rove?
Just wait until Dick Cheney takes off the rubber mask at the Republican convention, and everyone sees he is indeed Rove. Ever seen them in the same place together? Huh? Huh?
I feel sometimes like it's a bit of
Steph C (Diary) Friday, August 8th at 8:50PM EST (link)a curse because it’s never specific enough when I need it to be; not quite a photographic memory by the strictest definitions. However, I clearly can see in my mind’s eye right now, videos of Hussein meeting with high ranking members of Al Qaeda, scores of videos on what Hussein and his despot sons did, articles that detailed Hussein asking for 20 billion dollars and all the WMD info to leave Iraq, and more.
Now, there’s this book that claims all that was a lie? In claiming a fake letter it naturally follows that they say all the other is lies, too.
Same thing with the Katrina mess. I remember videos and interviews and articles about what the Democratic Governor, the Democratic Mayor, and the Democratic Senator did and said before, during, and after the flooding in Louisiana but somehow, someway, it was all Bush’s fault.
That’s one president who won’t even be able to go to the bathroom without the Secret Service people because somebody and probably more than one somebody is going to try to kill him for nonexistent crimes against humanity.
You really wanna know why “they” can’t impeach Bush? Because all their lies against him will be exposed for exactly what they are. “They” used those lies to get into power in Congress but they can’t go any further with them because they are lies.
It’s a real pity that, because he is the President [soon to be former President], that he can’t sue every one of you for libel and slander.
If you want to criticize Bush, there’s plenty of things he’s done wrong that you can criticize him for, although none of them are criminal, but I’m sick of the “Bush Lied, People Died” mantra, which is the biggest lie of all.
“[I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them.” –Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
Hillbilly Politics
Buchannan Votes
GeorgemcGovern Friday, August 8th at 10:14PM EST (link)Evan Pat said he had no idea where his Florida votes came from.
Dear Mr. Giraldi...
neoconned4war Sunday, August 10th at 3:19PM EST (link)Mr. Giraldi,
Thank you for your distinguished service to our country.
Like you, I am greatly alarmed by the manipulation of our foreign policy by neoconservatives.
As a life-long Texas conservative, these are not the true type of Republicans I’ve given my support to all my life.
Please, Mr. Giraldi, release your source so we can discredit these usurpers of power!
Best,
Meghan Gordon
Dallas, TX
As soon as they are able to find a source
Jack_Savage (Diary) Sunday, August 10th at 4:04PM EST (link)I feel sure they will let everyone know. It seems as though the search is still ongoing, however.
FYI, you’re about three years behind on the “I was tricked by neocons” line. Since things are going so well in Iraq you may need to come up with another schtick. Maybe you can find one in the same place all these “sources” lurk.