WP, Froomkin: "Purge of the Unbelievers"

[DeepModem Mom]

Purge of the Unbelievers
By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Friday, January 5, 2007

What to make of the sudden spate of personnel convulsions emanating from the White House?

I see a possible theme: A purge of the unbelievers.

Harriet Miers, a longtime companion of the president but never a true believer in Vice President Cheney's views of a nearly unrestrained executive branch, is out as White House counsel -- likely to be replaced by someone in the more ferocious model of Cheney chief of staff David S. Addington.

Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalizad, considered by Cheney to be too soft on the Sunnis, is kicked upstairs to the United Nations, to be replaced by Ryan Crocker, who presumably does not share his squeamishness.

John Negroponte, not alarmist enough about the Iranian nuclear threat in his role as Director of National Intelligence, is shifted over to the State Department, the Bush administration's safehouse for the insufficiently neocon. Cheney, who likes to pick his own intelligence, thank you, personally intervenes to get his old friend Mike McConnell to take Negroponte's job.

And George Casey and John Abizaid -- the generals who so loyally served as cheerleaders for the White House's "stay the course" approach during the mid-term election campaigns -- are jettisoned for having shown a little backbone in their opposition to Cheney and Bush's politically-motivated insistence on throwing more troops into the Iraqi conflagration....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[Wickerman]

1. They are really in batten down the hatches mode, aren't they?

1/2 an ounce of sanity in the lot and you'd see them shifting to a more moderate approach. No, instead you see them entrenching further; still striving to meet the goals of their corporate masters.

[DeepModem Mom]

2. This "entrenchment," to use your word, is astonishing. nt

[WinkyDink]

9. More like "to the mattresses".

[Tuesday_Morning]

3. A different take on things here:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/5/11956/90077

Taking Stock of the Intel Community Shake Up
by L C Johnson

There are big doings in the intel community that may signal the start of a new effort to cook the books to justify an attack on Iran. Let's start with John Negroponte's move to State Department. I am told by a knowledgeable friend that Negroponte was pressured by the White House to take the job at State. The exodus of key State Department personnel (e.g., Deputy Secretary Zoellick, Counselor Phil Zelikow, and Coordinator for Counter Terrorism Hank Crumpton) left Condi twisting in the wind. Negroponte gives Condi one of the most experienced foreign service officers in the State Department's history.

<snip>

Replacing Negroponte with retired Navy Admiral John M. McConnell and appointing retired Air Force Lt. General James Clapper as the Under Secretary of Intelligence at DOD, where he will be in charge of coordinating the budgets and activities of the NSA, the NRO, Defense Human Services, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), and the Defense Intelligence Agency, will give the military unprecedented control of the intelligence community. This will mark the first time since World War II the active duty or former military officers are running the main intelligence assets of the United States. Clapper's new job, at least for him, is a dream come true.

Clapper and McConnell are worrisome choices because they are known in the intelligence community as guys willing to give their customers what they want. Unlike Negroponte, who took a pretty tough analytical stance dismissing the imminence of an Iranian threat, Clapper and McConnell will be more than willing collaborators in making a case that Iran is a serious, immediate threat. If you want to cook the books then these guys can be master chefs.

more at link

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Interesting -- thanks for the link! nt

[alfredo]

4. bush probably thinks that Iran won't go to war with us if we

bomb them. He doesn't think they would cross the border into Iraq and kill as many US soldiers they can. He probably thinks they won't sink our ships in the Persian gulf.

Maybe he is thinking of nuking Iran and then blaming the fallout on "Iran's nuclear arsenal."

[Tuesday_Morning]

6. Perspective on another "believer"

Navy Admiral Goes to CENTCOM: Be Very Afraid

via Jeff Huber at Dkos

The news that has everyone a bit agog is that the head of Central Command, General John Abizaid, will be relieved by Admiral William J. Fallon.

ABC reports that "Fallon, who is in the Navy, is currently head of Pacific Command; he will be overseeing two ground wars, so the appointment is highly unusual."

<snip>


It seems highly unusual for a navy admiral to take charge of CENTCOM until you consider two interrelated things. First is that Bush needs a senior four-star in the CENTCOM job who hasn't gone on record as opposing additional troops in Iraq. Second is that Fallon's CENTCOM area of responsibility will include Iran.

A conflict with Iran would be a naval and air operation. Fallon is a naval flight officer. He flew combat missions in Vietnam, commanded an A-6 Intruder squadron, a carrier air wing, and an aircraft carrier. As a three-star, he commanded Second Fleet and Strike Force Atlantic. He presently heads U.S. Pacific Command. His resume also includes duty in numerous joint and Navy staff billets, including Deputy Director for Operations with Joint Task Force Southwest Asia in Riyahd, Saudi Arabia.

If anybody knows how to run a maritime and air operation against Iran, it's "Fox" Fallon.

more at link:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/5/11544/12737

[PATRICK]

7. The Senate needs to

slow down and block some of these appointees. Sen. Rockefeller voiced the wrong approach to this literal bums' rush of top changes in that there needs to be quick replacements BECAUSE too many top posts have been vacated simultaneously. The straight up approach to such matters against shifty, uncompromising Cheney is always destined for the halls of suckerdom. At the very least, a little shrewdness can be inserted by loudly pushing forward with all deliberate speed and never getting the iranian war team to port.

The list of cronies willing and able to carry out Madness Part 2 is shrinking and most of them should have some very nasty baggage in their resumes somewhere. If they want to avoid direct confrontation on war issues with a sitting president, and I know a lot of them do, here is a good place to weed out the garbage that insures disaster if even a sensible war policy is called for. But to show grace here enables Bush to cobble together a new nest of goons and shuffle others for an effort that makes team cheney comfortable with a new gambit. Even Lieberman and McCain, preaching army growth and escalation, should be made cautious about signing off on a new roster of Bush hawks who will absolutely guarantee more of the awesome "mistakes" the two bipartisan mouthpieces eagerly admit to. What, it must be asked long and hard, will these brilliant newbies bring to a heretofore failed effort in iraq other than a new imbroglio in Iran?

As Bush is left hanging and digging deep for more and more terrible choices the Iranian option could become a powderpuff disappearing in within its own incompetence and lack of staffing. The contradiction of taking away his power to make a future disastrous, inhumane, illegal war for big oil and/or Israel is a denuding of the very office of Commander in chief is the paradox Bush has created, not the Democrats. It has to be thrown back at him, not enabled with courteous appointments of hacks who will one track a new war.

There is a pivotal time to avoid the juggernaut such as became the "inevitable" Iraq invasion and it is not waiting for the president to give some straight up request they even then fear to vote on. The inevitability of war had the GOP won last fall would have been much greater, but it has not disappeared. Guessing the will and intentions of the WH is not necessary, nor the ability. There is still movement along the open road to an air attack on Iran and it is a media-stifled open secret. One among many highly important issues.

[grasswire]

11. good thoughtful post, thanks

I'm always for pushing back on Bush appointees. Nothing is ever straight up with this WH. Every move must be examined fully.

[Straight Shooter]

8. When you're digging your own grave, a wise choice is to start using a bigger shovel.

:sarcasm:

bush and cheney are certifiably insane.

[bigtree]

10. they're shuffling what's left of the same deck

that's all :silly:

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree