Dan Feidt's log on Minnesota, Information Operations, spinstorms and latent contradictions.
Cheney's favorite leak: Vice President Dick Cheney's claim that a magazine article, based on leaked and unevaluated intelligence, definitively proved links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden has triggered a new round in the Bush administration's conflict with the intelligence community."It's disgusting," said Vincent Cannistraro, the former CIA chief of counter-terrorism. "It's bullshit," said Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who served in the agency's Near East division....
The conservative Weekly Standard published its article on the Saddam-al-Qaida connection, "Case Closed," by Stephen Hayes, in its Nov. 24, 2003, issue. The piece, released on Nov. 14, was instantly promoted as providing proof for the Bush administration's assertion that Saddam was long involved with Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization. Weekly Standard executive editor Fred Barnes trumpeted the article on Fox News. "These are hard facts, and I'd like to see [skeptics] refute any one of them," he said.
But the Department of Defense did just that. On Nov. 15, the next day, the Pentagon issued an extraordinary statement calling the story "inaccurate" and explaining it was based on raw intelligence ... that had not been evaluated.
The assertion that Saddam and al-Qaida were in league was a major justification for the Iraq war. Indeed, a majority of Americans came to believe the alliance was real as a result of the administration's persistent suggestion that Saddam was behind 9/11, and it was the reason they gave for supporting the war.
However, no proof was ever offered, and the administration's continuing effort to press the point led the press corps to question President Bush about it. "There's no question that Saddam Hussein had al-Qaida ties," Bush said on Nov. 18, 2003. But he added, "We have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the Sept. 11" attacks. Yet on Jan. 9, Cheney, in an interview with the Rocky Mountain News, spontaneously lauded the discredited Weekly Standard article and described it as "the best source of information." ....
The Weekly Standard article was drawn from a "top secret U.S. government memorandum" that the magazine depicted as proving bin Laden and Saddam had an "operational relationship" that dated back nearly a decade. The memo was written by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith, who also oversaw the unique Office of Special Plans within the Pentagon. This small office of handpicked operatives was created under Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to act as a counter to the CIA and other intelligence agencies that were seen as insufficiently loyal in providing material to help make the administration's case about Saddam's imminent threat. Since its inception, the OSP has worked outside established intelligence channels, rarely sharing its intelligence information for peer review, and has been a direct source of information, often faulty, for the White House.
Following Feith's testimony about alleged ties between Saddam and external terrorist groups before Congress last July 10, he was pressed in a follow-up letter from Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., respectively the chairman and vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, to provide the evidence that backed up his assertions. In response, Feith's office cited 50 instances of raw intelligence that suggested ties between Iraqi dictator and the al-Qaida leader. Meanwhile, Feith's report also found its way to the Weekly Standard.
The article, which gave credence to Feith's report and suggested it had conclusively confirmed the Saddam-al-Qaida connection, never informed its readers that the report was simply a laundry list of uncorroborated data.
Former CIA counter-terrorism chief Cannistraro explains that hundreds, if not thousands, of raw reports from first-, second- and third-hand sources flood into the CIA offices around the word every day. But these are of little or no use until they can be analyzed...Cannistraro is stunned that Feith's office, out to prove linkage between Saddam and bin Laden, relied on raw intelligence summaries and not evaluated intelligence. "It's just amazing, because it's the antithesis of the intelligence process," he said.
I was reluctant to leave for work this morning when they said the whole state is around 0 degrees. Here it's 10 F below, with a windchill of -35 F. It is so cold that the Fahrenheit windchill number is nearly down to the Celsius number, -37. On the way to school, my glasses immediately grew a layer of frost from my breath. The lab is extremely quiet this morning...
Some scattered thoughts to expand on tomorrow: Yes, the New Hampshire primary is finished and John Kerry continues to rock the voters. Howard Dean finished in a fairly strong second, which he needed to keep from evaporating. But the magic's off for Dean. I feel that he messed up a lot of things by labeling the DLC as Republicans, for example. I don't like them, but its still wasn't fit for him to say. The Iowa Perfect Storm led to the Iowa Perfect Roaring Screech which tsunamied all over the damn place. Iowans aren't the only ones who appreciate tact from those taking third.
Both Dean and Kerry look so tired, worn, nearly ill on television. Dean caught a little break tonight, as did Wesley Clark. Clark's win at the tiny midnight towns was a clue: independent conservative voters think he's all right, because that's who his image has been crafted for. I don't think his job is to win the nomination, but to become burnished and popular brass for Defense Secretary or VP. (let's not underestimate the Vice President's office these days: Cheney has his own National Security Council. Clark could have one too?)
Alison is satisfied with Dean because he captured an all right second place. She's still on the wagon. I have not been impressed with anything Dean has done all over January. He just got way too negative against Gep the Torpedo--and suddenly the magic was gone.
Kerry is the most likely to succeed against Bush, according to a majority of New Hampshire voters. That's not so bad, if the ticket can be rounded out with something southerners find compelling. Edwards might be the smash hit in South Carolina, and Clark has everything to lose there.
Yet Sharpton, Clark and Edwards all must fear the Steamroller of Joe-mentum sweeping through the country this very night.
Here's one interesting thing. Cheney's polled unfavorability ratings have stayed about the same for quite a while. But his favorability has plunged as he's seen as Halliburton's inside man, just to begin with. Cheney may yet be a liability, especially since he led the way claiming the vanished illegal weapons--even inspector David Kay now admits they never were.
The Daily Show was excellent tonight as Jon Stewart deployed the fabulous clip today of Bush stumbling over the talk of "Gathering Threats." The Daily Show is making golden material these days. And then a creepy interview with Richard Perle?! Very A-list, all the way.
More later...
I am sad to say that this old computer is not going to work, because it has some kind of horrible technology called an "ISA plug-n-play network card" Linux has a hell of a time using the device. It is theoretically possible to get these things going but it would be pretty ugly, and the very old BIOS also seems bad. This is the problem with PCs, the commodity parts aren't good. Granted, this junker was very old and messed up to begin, but I like to recycle such things if I get ahold of them. Maybe a PCI Ethernet card could fit in it. Those are cheap.
Also the weird IBM monitor quietly makes sparking noises every few seconds.