This diary is NOT about education. It is written by Ray McGovern, a former ranking figure at the CIA who used to regularly breif in the White House (primarily the Vice President), and who has been quite vocal in his opposition to the distortions of intelligence in the current administration. I hae included his current bio information at the bottom of the selections.
The piecefrom which I have posted below the fold, is available from Truthout.org here and is entitled "Intelligence Made Me Do It."
Here are some selections:
The Intelligence Made Me Do It
By Ray McGovern
t r u t h o u t | Perspective
Saturday 18 March 2005
Let's review now. It was bad intelligence that made President George W. Bush invade Iraq, right? No, you say, and you are correct; that is just White House spin. The "intelligence" was conjured up many months after President George W. Bush's decision to attack.
Now, two years and tens of thousands of lives later, I marvel at the ease with which the White House has succeeded in getting Congress to scapegoat the intelligence community. All it takes is "a few good men"-like Senate Intelligence Committee chairman and former Marine Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), living out the Marine Corps motto, Semper Fi-always faithful.
But faithful to what? Faithful, first and foremost, to the party, in what-let us be frank-has become for all intents and purposes a one-party state. That pejorative label, you may recall, is what we used to pin on the dictatorship in the U.S.S.R., where there were no meaningful checks and balances. It is getting scary.
The hapless Democrats on Roberts' committee let themselves be snookered last summer into agreeing to postpone until after the election "phase two" of the panel's investigation into the performance of intelligence on Iraq. In return for their acquiescence in an incomplete report that, in effect, exonerated the White House, Roberts promised phase two would deal later with the question of White House misuse of intelligence and pressure on intelligence analysts. (CIA's ombudsman had told the committee that never in his 32-year career with the agency had he encountered such "hammering" on CIA analysts to review and reconsider their judgments.)
Marines respond instinctively when upper echelons change their orders. Thus, it should have come as no surprise when Roberts told reporters last week that the phase-two probe was no longer a priority for his committee. Roberts explained:
"If you ask any member of the administration, 'Why did you make that declarative statement?'...basically, the bottom line is they believed the intelligence and the intelligence was wrong."
This, however, does not stand up to close scrutiny.
What about intelligence on Iraq, where the war's still on. Army Special Forces Col. Patrick Lang (ret.) told me last fall, "The sad thing is that US combat intelligence in Iraq does not seem to know who the insurgents are, where they are, how many they are, or what they plan to do." That this state of affairs persists was made painfully clear at the February 3 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee, as General Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, fumbled questions regarding the size of the resistance.
Iran: Replay of Iraq?
With Senator Roberts as head watchdog, it should come as no surprise that there has been no national intelligence estimate (NIE) on Iran since 2001. As was the case with Iraq, the White House seems to be afraid that an honest estimate would reflect the flimsiness of intelligence on the Iranian nuclear program. But it is high time to update that 2001 NIE-particularly in view of the heated rhetoric from Washington and Tehran on this very subject, and an update is reported to be in progress. Better late than never, I suppose, assuming that this update will yield a more objective estimate than the infamous, "Iraq's Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction" of October 1, 2002. That shameful exercise yielded the most corrupt and inept NIE ever written.
Patriotic Truth-Telling
Chiseled into the marble wall at the entrance to CIA Headquarters is a verse from John's gospel: "You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." This was the ethos of the intelligence analysis directorate during the 27 years I spent there.
Intelligence analysts with integrity may have to move quickly before that inscription is sandblasted away. Many of us alumni remain stunned that, of the hundreds of analysts who knew in 2002 and 2003 that Iraq posed no threat to the US, not one had the courage to blow the whistle and warn about what was about to happen.
Truth-Telling Coalition Appeal
On September 9, 2004 the newly formed Truth-Telling Coalition issued a call to current government officials , that included suggestions regarding why and how to expose dishonesty to the light of day in time to derail plans for reckless, unnecessary war. In recognition of the various disincentives to speaking out, and the courage required, we finished with this appeal:
"We know how misplaced loyalty to bosses, agencies, and careers can obscure the higher allegiance all government officials owe the Constitution, the sovereign public, and the young men and women put in harm's way. We urge you to act on those higher loyalties.... Truth-telling is a patriotic and effective way to serve the nation."
I strongly urge you to go to the link (aobve the fold) and read the entire article. It is important, and from on quite credible.
here's the biographical information I promised:
Ray McGovern works at Tell the Word, the publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in Washington, DC. He is co-founder of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity. During his 27-years at CIA his duties included chairing national intelligence estimates. A speculative piece by Ray on the implications of an attack on Iran is posted at
http://tomdispatch.com/index.mhtml?pid=2230