Bush has selected Porter Goss to replace Tenet. I have heard a couple of theories of why Pavitt and Tenet resigned, both have the ring of truth, or at least plausibility and both highlight issues that are valid. One, that the Plame affair blew deep cover legit spy stuff that tracked WMD, and the CIA is taking down Bush for his plan to reorganize the intelligence community, but, more importantly the way covert operations are approved, thus bringing the shadow government and its huge budget and unlimited power to make covert war directly under the president's control.
The second has to do with the GOP holding the shady story of John Deutch over Tenet's head. This story is quoted and linked below so read it. Interesting analysis. There's enough there to fry Tenet too on false WMD claims.
Either way its a circular firing squad. A boon to researchers.
The political battle will go like this: Left = intelligence failures due to Bush stupidity, more money and power for the CIA, Right = Tenet and Clinton set Bush up to fail, because they were more interested in helping Deutch, the Chinese and beating the Monica rap.
Recall that Gen. Hussein Kamal, director of Saddam's nuke and chem-bio weapons programs (and also Saddam's son-in-law), had defected to Jordan back in 1995, carrying with him thousands of supporting documents. Kamal was extensively debriefed by U.N. inspectors and by the CIA.
Tenet was then deputy director of the CIA.
Kamal reported that Iraqis had destroyed all Iran-Iraq War chemical and biological agents and weapons, including the missiles to deliver them. The International Atomic Energy Agency had discovered and destroyed what remained of the unsuccessful Iraqi nuke program. Quoth Kamal, "nothing remained."
By 1998, the U.N. inspectors were able to report to the U.N. Security Council that Kamal had indeed told the truth. Whereupon several members proposed that the "sanctions" imposed on Iraq in 1991 be lifted.
President Clinton refused to allow it, claiming he had "intelligence" to the contrary about Saddam's WMD programs.
Tenet had become DCI in 1997.
Then, without sharing that "intelligence" with the Security Council - as he was obliged to do, Clinton proceeded to unilaterally bomb the gee-whiz out of Saddam's many palaces.
As the bombing was an obvious attempt to assassinate him, Saddam didn't allow U.N. inspectors to return to Iraq until Nov. 18, 2002. After checking out many alleged "WMD sites," the U.N. inspectors reported - as they continued to do, each month, right up till the eve of the invasion - that they could find no "indication" that there had been any attempts to reconstruct Iraq's WMD programs or facilities since 1991, much less since 1998.
According to Woodward, the media reports of smiling Iraqis leading inspectors around, opening up buildings and saying, "See, there's nothing here," infuriated Bush, who then would read intelligence reports showing the Iraqis were moving and concealing things.
He was told the "things" the Iraqis were moving and concealing were probably WMD. Finding that "less than convincing," Bush asked for a more detailed briefing by CIA Deputy Director John E. McLaughlin, which took place on Dec. 21 , 2002.
McLaughlin's version used communications intercepts, satellite photos, diagrams and other intelligence.
"Nice try," Bush said when the CIA official was finished. "I don't think this quite - it's not something that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of confidence from."
He then turned to Tenet, McLaughlin's boss, and said, "I've been told all this intelligence about having WMD, and this is the best we've got?"
"It's a slam-dunk case," Tenet replied, throwing his arms in the air.
Bush pressed him again. "George, how confident are you?"
"Don't worry, it's a slam dunk," Tenet repeated
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/prather.php?articleid=2383
Still more:
If you thought the neo-crazies had lost control over President Bush, think again. A neo-crazy delegation - headed by Richard Perle - marched up to the White House last week and demanded that Bush fire Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) George Tenet.
Quoth Perle, "There is a smear campaign under way, and it is being perpetrated by the CIA and the DIA and a gaggle of former intelligence officers who have succeeded in planting these stories, which are accepted with hardly any scrutiny."
Whom did Tenet smear? Ahmad Chalabi. The neo-crazy darling who provided the disinformation - accepted with hardly any scrutiny by neo-crazy media sycophants - used to "justify" Bush's pre-emptive invasion and occupation of Iraq.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/prather.php?articleid=2764
Porter Goss is waiting in the wings and Moore's F 9-11 may prove a hard act to follow.
Is the administration getting desperate? Porter Goss is an easy target and picking Goss stokes Moore's F9-11 fire to the Nth degree.
"When the news [of the attacks on the World Trade Center] came, the two Florida lawmakers who lead the House and Senate intelligence committees were having breakfast with the head of the Pakistani intelligence service. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Sanibel, Sen. Bob Graham and other members of the House Intelligence Committee were talking about terrorism issues with the Pakistani official when a member of Goss' staff handed a note to Goss, who handed it to Graham. "We were talking about terrorism, specifically terrorism generated from Afghanistan," Graham said.
...The FBI confirmed in late September, in an interview with ABC News (which went virtually unnoticed) that the 9-11 ring leader, Mohammed Atta, had been financed from unnamed sources in Pakistan:
"As to September 11th, federal authorities have told ABC News they have now tracked more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan, to two banks in Florida, to accounts held by suspected hijack ring leader, Mohammed Atta. As well . . . "Time Magazine" is reporting that some of that money came in the days just before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden. It's all part of what has been a successful FBI effort so far to close in on the hijacker's high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind."
...Now, it just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged "money man" behind 9-11, was in the U.S. when the attacks occurred. He arrived on the 4th of September, one week before 9-11, on what was described as a routine visit of consultations with his U.S. counterparts. According to Pakistani journalist, Amir Mateen (in a prophetic article published on September 10):
"ISI Chief Lt-Gen. Mahmoud's week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Marc Grossman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have centred around Afghanistan . . . and Osama bin Laden. What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud's predecessor, was here, during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days." 12
http://inn.globalfreepress.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=485
There's more Porter Goss coinkidinks going on:
NEWSWEEK -- Dick Cheney played a behind-the-scenes role last week in derailing an agreement to create an independent commission to investigate the 9-11 attacks. Last month the White House endorsed the formation of the panel. But on Thursday, hours after congressional negotiators hailed a final deal over the scope and powers of a 9-11 panel, Cheney called House Intelligence Committee chairman Rep. Porter Goss, sources told NEWSWEEK.
Later that day Goss told a closed-door conference committee he couldn't accept the deal, citing instructions from "above my pay grade,'' sources say. Goss later said he was referring to other House leaders, not Cheney. Goss wouldn't discuss his call from the VP but said it wasn't the "determining factor'' in his stand.
Cheney's office said the VP's only instruction to Goss was to "keep negotiating,'' and Bushies insist they still hope to hammer out a new deal before Congress goes home this week. One obstacle: subpoena power. Last week's proposed deal would allow any five members of the 10-member panel to subpoena documents, including internal White House intelligence briefs. But White House officials say this would allow congressional Democrats--who will control half the appointees--to "politicize'' the commission. Cheney strongly opposes the idea of any independent body's poking into the White House's conduct. He has repeatedly objected to efforts by a separate joint-intelligence-committee inquiry to obtain documents and interview key witnesses, including an FBI informant who lived with two of the 9-11 hijackers. Bush officials insist the VP's stand is based on "principle,'' not fear of embarrassments. Even some congressional critics tend to agree. "There's just this general philosophical orientation that the less the world knows, the better,'' says one GOP staffer
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/10.15A.nswk.cheney.911.htm
The less we know the better! Sounds like a cover up but is it more?
In other words, General Mahmoud Ahmad as head of the ISI was serving US foreign policy interests. His dismissal on the orders of Washington was not the result of a fundamental political disagreement. Without US support channeled through the Pakistani ISI, the Taliban would not have been able to form a government in 1996. Jane Defense Weekly confirms in this regard that "half of Taliban manpower and equipment originate[d] in Pakistan under the ISI," which in turn was supported by the US.23 Moreover, the assassination of the leader of the Northern Alliance General Ahmad Shah Masood --in which the ISI is alleged to have been implicated-- was not in contradiction with US foreign policy objectives. Since the late 1980s, the US had consistently sought to side-track and weaken Masood who was perceived as a nationalist reformer, by providing support to both to the Taliban and the Hezb-I-Islami group led by Gulbuddin Hektmayar against Masood .
Corroborated by Congressional Transcripts
Corroborated by the House of Representatives Internaitonal Relations Committee, US support funneled through the ISI to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden has been a consistent policy of the US Administration since the end of the Cold War:
...[T]he United States has been part and parcel to supporting the Taliban all along, and still is let me add... You have a military government [of President Musharraf] in Pakistan now that is arming the Taliban to the teeth....Let me note; that [US] aid has always gone to Taliban areas... We have been supporting the Taliban, because all our aid goes to the Taliban areas. And when people from the outside try to put aid into areas not controlled by the Taliban, they are thwarted by our own State Department... At that same moment, Pakistan initiated a major resupply effort, which eventually saw the defeat, and caused the defeat, of almost all of the anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan. 24
Cover-up and Complicity?
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/11_02_01_michele.html
The cover story made up by the CIA for bin Laden and the Mujahideen posits Pakistan's nuclear capability as a major goal for bin Laden's fundementalist movement. Bin Laden by all accounts spent the Nineties convincing Iran he wasn;t a CIA asset. All this BS about Chalabi and Iranian secrets. Asia Times reports bin Laden moving into Iran not Pakistan. Iran is suppossed to have WMD too; However:
During the past year or so, Iran has given IAEA inspectors unprecedented and unlimited access to go anywhere and see anything thought suspicious. The IAEA has found no evidence that Iran now has - or has ever had - a nuke development program.
Nevertheless, on May 6, the U.S. House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming margin (376-3) a resolution that said - among other things - that Congress:
"(1) condemns in the strongest possible terms Iran's continuing deceptions and falsehoods to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the international community about its nuclear programs and activities;
(2) calls upon all State Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), including the United States, to use all appropriate means to deter, dissuade, and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, including ending all nuclear and other cooperation with Iran (including the provision of dual use items), until Iran fully implements the Additional Protocol between Iran and the IAEA for the application of safeguards;
(3) declares that Iran, through its many breaches for 18 years of its Safeguards Agreement with the IAEA, has forfeited the right to be trusted with development of a nuclear fuel cycle, especially with uranium conversion and enrichment and plutonium reprocessing technology, equipment, and facilities..."
So what's going on? Representative Ron Paul (R, Texas) - one of the three who voted against the resolution - thinks he knows.
"I find it incomprehensible that as the failure of our Iraq policy becomes more evident - even to its most determined advocates - we here are approving the same kind of policy toward Iran.
"With Iraq becoming more of a problem daily, the solution as envisioned by this legislation is to look for yet another fight. And we should not fool ourselves: this legislation sets the stage for direct conflict with Iran.
"The resolution "calls upon all State Parties to the Treaty on the Nonproliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), including the United States, to `"use all appropriate means to deter, dissuade, and prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons...'"
"Note the phrase `...use all appropriate means...'"
So, will US pilots - or Israeli pilots "under contract" - "take out" the Iranian Safeguarded facilities? Stay tuned.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/prather.php?articleid=2644
As the politicians try to sell us the draft, and, bin Laden hides in either Pakistan or Iran beware the WMD scam pointed this time towards Iran. The ultimate goal is to have an enemy in place so congress can be persuaded to pass more and more missile defense and nuclear programs.
The new threat is dirty bombs. This time it is rumoured by sea delivered in suitcases. Notice the US announced yesterday it will board all ships sailing into US ports.
Don't be fooled by the dirty bomb threat:
Two years ago, before Comey revealed what radiological agent Padilla intended to use, the dirty bomb "experts" at the Federation of American Scientists decided to scare the pants off you soccer moms.
The FAS "dirty bomb" was a "coffee jar" containing about a thousand curies of a true radiological material such as Cobalt-60. That's about the radiological source-strength of a medical radio-therapy unit used to irradiate cancer patients.
"A successful bomb would have to be designed with great sophistication, first to break open the 'coffee jar,' then to gradually heat the radioactive source so that it vaporized, and finally to scatter it to the winds."
Sophistication?
Padilla?
Actually, the FAS scenario sounds like the 1986 Chernobyl accident. A graphite-moderated, water-cooled reactor at Chernobyl was being deliberately operated in a zone where the reactor was known to be unstable. The operators lost control, the reactor ran away, melting the core, setting the graphite moderator on fire and vaporizing the coolant, splitting it into hydrogen and oxygen gases. The fire then ignited the hydrogen-oxygen gas mixture, which exploded, blowing the roof off the reactor building.
About a hundred million curies of radioactivity was spread over a wide area by invisible gases and thick black smoke. The fire burned for 10 days. Downwind, Soviet citizens could see the smoke and the sooty "fallout." But there was no terror, no panic. In fact, one of the other power plants at Chernobyl continued to operate throughout the entire ordeal.
Many of those downwind, who were forced to evacuate, didn't want to go. And except for an increase during the first several years after 1986 of thyroid cancer in small children, there has been no significant increase in cancer incidence among the downwind population.
But the FAS apparently scared some of you. So, we and the Russians - in cooperation with the IAEA - have decided to help other countries enhance their own radiological safeguards and physical security. There are estimated to be more than 10,000 medical radiotherapy units and 12,000 industrial radiographic units in operation, worldwide.
Thieves - not terrorists - have stolen several medical radiotherapy units - which weigh about a ton - and sold them as scrap metal.
In the worst incident - in 1987 in Brazil - the thieves removed the highly radioactive source from the shielded unit. Result? Five persons died within days and others got life-threatening doses of radiation.
Hence, the FAS thousand-curie dirty-bomb scenario results in a dead dirty-bomber and very little terror.
But, Padilla could survive his micro-curie uranium scenario. That is, if he wore rubber gloves.
Reprinted from WorldNetDaily
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/prather.php?articleid=2810
Remember this in the run up to the illegal occupation?
While still wrangling over how to overthrow Iraq's Saddam Hussein, the Bush administration is already looking for other targets. President Bush has called for the ouster of Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat. Now some in the administration--and allies at D.C. think tanks--are eyeing Iran and even Saudi Arabia. As one senior British official put it: "Everyone wants to go to Baghdad. Real men want to go to Tehran."
http://www.msnbc.com/news/792516.asp