Interpret this paragraph:

[kentuck]

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/10/opinion/10sat1.html

<snip>
The report said the team headed by Douglas Feith, under secretary of defense for policy, developed “alternative” assessments of intelligence on Iraq that contradicted the intelligence community and drew conclusions “that were not supported by the available intelligence.” Mr. Feith certainly knew the Central Intelligence Agency would cry foul, so he hid his findings from the C.I.A. Then Vice President Dick Cheney used them as proof of cloak-and-dagger meetings that never happened, long-term conspiracies between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden that didn’t exist, and — most unforgivable — “possible Iraqi coordination” on the 9/11 attacks, which no serious intelligence analyst believed.

============================

...develped "alternative" assessments of intelligence = made up lies out of whole cloth.

...drew conclusions “that were not supported by the available intelligence.” = in effect, said that black was white and that day was night...

....hid his findings from the C.I.A. = had their own little corner office where they made up their own intelligence

....Vice President Dick Cheney used them as proof of cloak-and-dagger meetings that never happened, =
Dick conspired to deceive the American people and take us to war with lies.

[spanone]

1. Personally, I call it treason.

[Dhalgren]

8. Who would not call this treason? I would like someone to step up

and argue that Feith's and Cheney's actions were NOT treason. When you lie to and deceive the congress and the people of the country to take the nation to war - an illegal, preemptive war, how is that not treason? All of our elected officials and "media" people are pussyfooting around this issue, not addressing this central question: When does fraud become treason?

[cgrindley]

2. Interpret or parse?

It sounds like you're looking for a worst case scenario...

it could just as easily been a combination of malice, idiocy and incompetence as it could outright evil. Or it could be 1/3 outright evil, 1/3 good intentions, and 1/3 bourbon.

[kentuck]

3. Is that your opinion?

I think it was done intentionally and with purpose.

[Missy M]

5. I too think it was done intentionally and with purpose...

Bush, Cheney and the other Neocon's were planning to invade Iraq whichever way they could, even before 9/11. 9/11 just gave them an excuse, even though it was bogus.

[cgrindley]

6. I think they're at least 2/3rds evil but that other 1/3 is up for grabs

but the rest has got to be incompetence and booze. Listen, if they were 100% evil, they would have gotten away with it. Othello is Iago's tragedy too. Iago blew it. He screwed up. Same thing is true here. Cheney et al were not as smart or devious or evil as people give them credit. There's a good amount of bumbling, too. Or are you forgetting that this is a man who accidentally shot someone in the face while hunting?

[Missy M]

7. There are many 100% evil people who don't get away with it...

that's why we have so many prisons.

[Dhalgren]

10. I don't think that there is any real correlation between "evil" and

intelligence. As a matter of fact the two have little to do with each other. We attribute intelligence to evil, because stupid evil is easy to find, catch, and thwart. In my opinion, the Bush Family Evil Empire has gotten away with a huge amount of evil, we're just "lucky" (if you can call it that) that they aren't more intelligent than they are...

[nebenaube]

15. and why do you think he "accidentally" shot him?

because he survived?

[Straight Shooter]

22. You fail to take into consideration Feith and Cheney are members of PNAC.

Incompetence and booze have nothing to do with it. They participated in a carefully planned, meticulously executed, malicious agenda to further the aims of PNAC.

Please do not grant the benefit of good intentions or common incompetence to these extraordinarily heinous individuals.

Read more about the "stupidest motherfucker on the planet" here:
http://middleeastinfo.org/article.php?sid=701

"Feith has had a long career in both government service and the private sector. During the Reagan Administration he served as the White House National Security Staff and in the Defense Department as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy. He also served as Special Counsel to Richard Perle, then Assistant Secretary of Defense.

Feith is an attorney with the Washington firm of Feith and Zell. His own biography says that he specializes in "technology transfer, joint ventures and foreign investment in the defense and aerospace industries."

On the political front, Feith has been associated with the Cold War "neo-conservative" school of thought. What is of concern here is the extent to which Feith has transposed the neo-conservative worldview onto the Middle East. As his fellow cold warriors defined the world in ideological dualistic terms—the forces of absolute good confronting the forces of absolute evil—Feith defines the Arab-Israeli conflict in similar terms.

A prolific writer, Feith has left a long paper trail of anti-Arab tracts and diatribes against those who challenge or seek to compromise Israel’s strength and as he defines it, "moral superiority" over the Arabs."

[spanone]

11. I absofuckinglutely agree with you kentuck. No benefit of the doubt. TOO MANY DEATHS.

[Morgana LaFey]

19. With the Bush cabal, it's ALWAYS wisest and safest

to look for THE worst WORST WORST case scenario from the get-go. Always.

[Uncle Joe]

4. A shadow government,

not responsive to checks, balances or oversight, another step in dis-empowering the American People from their government.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

9. Lies to get us into war

It would seem to me that ignoring real intelligence and substituting false intelligence is treasonous.

[Felinity]

12. Just a little ironic, isn't it?

The worst attack on American soil was a result of incompetence of the National Security Advisor (not to mention a general lack of interest on the part of the whole Administration), and the lack of effective coordination between security agencies of possible terrorist threats (okay, Condi was asleep at the wheel here,too).

And just by coincidence mind you, we went to war with Irag due to deliberate incompetence on the part of Feith's little fiefdom at the DOD, and deliberate compartmentalization of national security analysis to avoid scrutiny by other (competent) agencies.

Co-inky dink, Co-inky dink. Funny, isn't it?

:grr:

[Warpy]

13. Translation? Twisted the truth into a lie

'Nuff said.

The lot of them belong in Leavenworth, and if they survive their sentences, the Hague.

[rateyes]

14. I would interpret it to mean...

that the OSP was running its own intelligence operation. This isn't just "criticism" of the intelligence, this is "creating" intelligence. That, BTW, is an illegal activity for the OSP.

[Amonester]

25. And the Brits called it "the Intelligence is being ...

fixed

"

in the Downing Street Minutes.

[rateyes]

28. Fixed around the policy...

sounds like the IG agrees with the Downing Street Minute Taker.

[krispos42]

16. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy

Sounds like he had (or was told) a policy for which the facts did not fit. Since the policy could not be wrong, the facts obviously were.

Ta-da! Where's my medal?



On a more serious note, I don't think it is the job of the political appointees to interpret the intelligence data, especially when it's been processed aready by professional, patriotic government analysts. It is the job of the politicians to use that information to make political decisions about war and peace, not change that information so they can make decisions they feel comfortable making.

It is one thing to say about a particular piece of analysis "I have read it and will combine it's conclusions with other information to develop a strategy", quite another to say "This report reaches conclusions that do not corrospond with my political ideals, so fuck it".

Just like that damn abstinence-only education. The only people that think it works are the Christian idealogues, yet you do it anyway, disregarding the reports from everybody else that does NOT have an idealogical/theological take on it that says it DOESN'T work!

[robinlynne]

17. why are they (media and congress) being so damn polite about it? Seems noone can

ever use the word lie.

[Error]

18. Its no accident when billions of dollars change hands

this is the largest scale criminal conspiracy the world has seen in modern times.

wholesale theft, invasion, occupation, murder, rape, torture, collusion, perversion of public information...

war crimes by a dictatorial cabal. Now they call being a dictator being "the decider".

[helderheid]

20. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[LibDemAlways]

21. You said a mouthful. Well put. And...

welcome to DU!

[BuyingThyme]

24. Welcome to DU, Error!

:hi:

[BuyingThyme]

23. TRANSLATION:

The report said Feith LIED US INTO WAR. The report said Feith is a mass-murdering criminal who must die in prison with the rest of them.

IS IT REALLY SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND?!!!

(The caps really show how upset I am about this.)

[frogcycle]

26. you are spot-on

and yet even this is only the tip of the iceberg


What is going on right now, in my opinion, is a little like the movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"

You don't know who amongst you is a pod-person, so you have to move very, very carefully as you put together your counterstrategy.

If you had seen them coming and nuked their spaceship when it landed, all would be fine. But now they have permeated society, metastasized, as it were, and ridding the world of the cancer is not a simple surgery.


Much like some of the most advanced cancer drugs, though, the solution may be not a radical, debilitating drug that does as much harm as help, but a mobilization of the body's defenses to overcome the invaders.

Getting information like this out, doing all the investigations congress has started and is contemplating, will stimulate many, many defenses. It will get parts of the media off their butts - they will smell blood in the water and start running stories like this. When an Enron sticks its head up, the whack-a-mole defense will recognize it for what it is and respond, rather than just take it, as California did. We might dismantle the monster, a little bit at a time. But making an all-out assault on a component is futile - it will quickly sacrifice that component, let you spend your energy impeaching or whatever, and be busily snatching more bodies behind your back.


OK, did anyone count how many metaphors i mixed up? :)

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

27. Interpret It? Ok: "They All Fucking Lied And Should Be Imprisoned"