The Diane Rehm Show today will have Douglas Feith discussing his new novel.. er... memoir.. "War and Decision" (Harper).
I am thinking it would be good to have polite knowledgeable listeners call in.
If you have the time, know your facts and call the show: 1-800-433-8850 (drshow@wamu.org). I apologize for less than substantive diary entry.
More on faith based intelligence Doug on the flip
Short Bio fromWikipedia
Douglas J. Feith (born July 16, 1953) served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy for United States President George W. Bush from July 2001 until he resigned from his position effective August 8, 2005. His official responsibilities included the formulation of defense planning guidance and forces policy, United States Department of Defense (DoD) relations with foreign countries, and DoD's role in U.S. Government interagency policymaking. His tenure in that position was marked by controversy.
Upon his resignation, Feith joined the faculty of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, as a Professor and Distinguished Practitioner in National Security Policy.
Thomas Ricks and Karen D. Young described his memoir here
Douglas J. Feith, in a massive score-settling work, portrays an intelligence community and a State Department that repeatedly undermined plans he developed as undersecretary of defense for policy and conspired to undercut President Bush's policies.
Although he acknowledges "serious errors" in intelligence, policy and operational plans surrounding the invasion, Feith blames them on others outside the Pentagon and notes that "even the best planning" cannot avoid all problems in wartime. While he says the decision to invade was correct, he judges that the task of creating a viable and stable Iraqi government was poorly executed and remains "grimly incomplete."
Cribbing again from Feith's Wikipedia entry:
Feith led the controversial Office of Special Plans (OSP) at the Pentagon from September 2002 to June 2003.[37] This now defunct intelligence gathering unit has been accused of manipulating intelligence to bolster support for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.[38] According to The Guardian, "This rightwing intelligence network [was] set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force."[39] According to Kwiatkowski, the Office of Special Plans was "a propaganda shop" and she personally "witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president."[40][41] Senator Carl Levin, in an official report on the Office of Special Plans, singles Feith out as providing to the White House a large amount of Iraq-Al Qaeda allegations which, post-invasion, turned out to be false.[42] Disarmament expert George Perkovich of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace told National Public Radio in 2004, "By all accounts, things in Iraq have gone very, very badly. Doug Feith should have been fired a long time ago for incompetence."