Reply #21: There's another side to this - several, in fact - not being discussed. [View All]

[leveymg]

There was a parallel effort to purge DIA of the analysts there who were similarly not playing ball with the neocons. Lt. Col. Karen Kwaitowski has been prominent among the DIA professionals who got pushed out by the OSP cabal.

The DIA loyalists had strong allies on the JCS, and the staff of the Joint Chiefs, who are probably the prime reason that Fitz was appointed and allowed to proceed with the investigation.

Without the support of the JCS, an investigation and prosecution of Plamegate would never have happened.

There's another reason the JCS went against the Administration. The Bush WH and the civilian DoD under Rummie and Wolfowitz is riddled with Likud agents of influence. The planting of phoney evidence of Iraq and Iran WMDs in coordination with the intelligence services of a foreign power was an intolerable breach of national security. I refer here to the Larry Franklin OSP-AIPAC spy case.

Finally, mounting US casualties in Iraq and the very visible degradation of American military readiness that resulted convinced the Bush supporters on the JCS that this Administration needed a thorough housecleaning.

The point I make here is that it wasn't just some "dissident" wing within the CIA that turned on Bush. There is one institution that is simply more powerful than either the Presidency or the intelligence services.

Don't ever, ever try to take on the uniformed military (and the CIA) for partisan gain - Joseph McCarthy learned that, the hard way.