Last 2 Members Named to Iraq Intel Panel

[jpak]

Last 2 Members Named to Iraq Intel Panel

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-wh/2004/feb/12/021206221.html

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush on Thursday named the final two members of the commission that will investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq, adding the president of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a former Pentagon official.

Charles M. Vest has been MIT's president since 1990. Henry S. Rowen, a professor emeritus at Stanford University, was an assistant defense secretary from 1989 to 1991.

[Ediacara]

1. Well....

We couldn't have Democrats on the panel, heck no!

ON EDIT: ok, I am not sure what Vest's political inclinations are, but when you have a panel of 9, and 7 or 8 of them are Republicans.... does it matter?

[Toucano]

2. It already didn't matter.

Regardless of who they appoint, they are going to take a year to do a 90-day job. It's a Whitewash panel.

They don't even care to pretend it will be fair.

[starroute]

3. Some stuff on Vest

http://www.broad.mit.edu/broad/charlesvest.html

Dr. Vest chairs the U.S. Department of Energy Task Force on the Future of Science Programs and serves as vice chair of the Council on Competitiveness. He is also a member of both the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Commission on Scientific Communication and National Security and of the National Academies-CSIS collaborative Roundtable on Scientific Communication and National Security. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities (AAU) and recently completed terms as AAU chair and vice chair. Dr. Vest has been a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology since 1994.

<snip>

Dr. Vest is a director of IBM and E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company . . .

<snip>

The Vests have two children: a daughter, Kemper, who is a defense analyst in Washington, D.C . . .

[starroute]

4. And here's all you need to know about Rowen

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/ind/rowen/rowen_body.html

Defense Policy Board: Member
Project for the New American Century: Founding member
Hoover Institution: Senior fellow emeritus
Assistant Secretary of Defense in Reagan administration


On edit: We all know PNAC, but for those who are not aware of the Hoover Institution, here's a list of some past and present fellows:

Richard V. Allen, former United States National Security Advisor
Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives
Dinesh D'Souza, author
Edwin Meese, former United States Attorney General
Condoleezza Rice, United States National Security Advisor
Donald Rumsfeld, United States Secretary of Defense
George P. Schultz, former United States Secretary of State

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoover_Institution



On edit, again: And here's a quote from a Rowan article which the Hoover Institution published in 1998 (!):

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION: A CHILLING SURVEY
Any state could move weapons of mass destruction to practically anywhere on earth. Anyone with a long-range civil aircraft has the means of delivering a bomb over great distances. Of particular worry is the prospect that nations such as Iran, Iraq, and North Korea will be able to deliver nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads with cruise or ballistic missiles. Cruise missiles having a range several hundred kilometers (hard to detect and intercept) are becoming ubiquitous and can be launched from land, aircraft, and ships. The Chinese-made CSS-2 missiles in Saudi Arabia are capable of reaching Western Europe, and there have been reports of Saudi Arabia seeking nuclear warheads for them. In short, the ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction long distances is inexorably increasing, and although Europe is closer to some possible launch sites than is the United States, the difference in exposure, if any, will not last long.

http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/publications/digest/981/rowen.html

[Bozita]

6. Good post, Starroute

Thanks

[stevedeshazer]

9. I'm sure THAT guy will be impartial!

Um, I mean "fair and balanced."

[starroute]

13. I found a little more on Rowen

This guy has a history going back into the 1960's, when he was with the Rand Corporation. During the Kennedy administration, he was working on nuclear war scenarios for Henry Kissinger. He was also Daniel Ellsberg's mentor at Rand. (Alan Arkin played him in the made-for-tv movie of "The Pentagon Papers.")

I posted some links and quotes over at General Discussions:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1115941

[Robbien]

5. So he is a Cheney lackey?

Sure sounds that way.

[Minstrel Boy]

7. A PNAC founding member on the Iraq Intel panel reminds me of

Allan Dulles on the Warren Commission.

Even now, the audacity of these bloody brigands astonishes me.

[concord]

8. I wonder what their real purpose is

These guys aren't light-weights. Since it's pretty obvious they aren't being assembled to do the advertised job, what is their function?

[AZCat]

10. Produce a credible fake

If you're going to pull a scam, you have to have talented people who know the trade. Art counterfeiters are talented artists in their own right.

[ConcernedCanuk]

11. Don't hafta have a degree in political science to figure this scam out

.
.

Appointed by the guy who is guilty

responsible to noone except the one who is guilty

and cannot divulge ANYTHING to ANYONE without the permission of the one who is guilty

and better yet, it is written in there that nothing this "commission" discovers or decides has any legal bearing on "any country, organization or person"

gee - ya think it's a whitewash, - REALLY ? ? :shrug:

frickadee, the evil knows no bounds, and noone's stopping him

[The_Casual_Observer]

12. These overrated bullshitters can be counted on to follow

the exact mission spelled out by the WH/pentagon. Find faults with the CIA intelligence gathering apparatus. This is a complete waste of time.