Heads should roll' over Iraq (says Richard Perle)

Toronto Star ^

[Happy2BMe]

Feb. 18, 2004. 01:00 AM

DANNY JOHNSTON/AP

U.S. President George W. Bush is applauded by the army and National Guard troops during a speech at Fort Polk, La., yesterday in which he defended the U.S. war in Iraq. Fort Polk is home to more than 6,300 troops who are in Iraq.

`Heads should roll' over Iraq
Adviser wants U.S. intelligence chiefs to quit

Cites faulty conclusions on Saddam's weapons

ERIC ROSENBERG
SPECIAL TO THE STAR

WASHINGTON—Richard Perle, a chief proponent of last year's U.S. invasion of Iraq, yesterday called for the chiefs of the Central Intelligence Agency and the U.S. Defence Intelligence Agency to step down because of their faulty conclusions that Saddam Hussein possessed mass-killing weapons.

Perle, a close adviser to U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, said top officials made no attempt to skew the intelligence about Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction. Instead, he implied, top policymakers relied in good faith on the conclusions of the intelligence agencies.

"George Tenet has been at the CIA long enough to assume responsibility for its performance," Perle told reporters, referring to the director of the agency. "There's a record of failure and it should be addressed in some serious way."

"The CIA has an almost perfect record of getting it wrong in relation to the (Persian) Gulf going back to the Shah of Iran," Perle said. He called for "a shakeup" in the U.S. intelligence establishment.

"I think, of course, heads should roll," he said. "When you discover that you have an organization that doesn't get it right time after time, you change the organization, including the people.

"I'd start with the head head," Perle said when asked which heads should roll at the CIA. Perle said the DIA " is in at least as bad shape as CIA (and) needs new management."

Navy Vice-Adm. Lowell Jacoby has headed the agency since July, 2002.

U.S. President George W. Bush, Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell have said they relied on intelligence from the CIA and DIA in their assertions that Saddam had stockpiles of mass-casualty weapons. The claim was the main rationale for the U.S-led invasion.

David Kay, former head of the U.S. weapons-hunting team in Iraq, has concluded it was highly unlikely that Saddam possessed stockpiles of such weapons.

"It turns out we were all wrong, probably, in my judgment, and that is most disturbing," Kay said last month.

While Kay dismissed the prospect that stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction would ever be found in Iraq, Perle disputed him on two relatively minor claims: that Iraq wasn't seeking to enrich uranium or develop mobile weapons laboratories to manufacture chemical or biological weapons.

"The jury is still out" on those points, Perle said.

Perle, the former chairman of — and current member of — the Defence Policy Board, a senior level advisory panel to Rumsfeld, was an advocate for overthrowing Saddam, asserting in the months leading up to the war that the Iraqi dictator's weapons stockpiles posed a grave threat to the United States.

In the lead-up to the war, Perle regularly warned about Saddam's reputed arsenal and the danger that would follow if the United Nations failed to get the Iraqi dictator to disarm.

Tenet was first appointed by president Bill Clinton and confirmed by the Senate in 1997 and then moved over to the Bush administration after the 2000 election. His agency has been criticized for the Iraqi weapons episode and for failing to detect the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist strikes.

[Happy2BMe]

hmmm... start with Saddam's and work your way out.

[Happy2BMe]

DANNY JOHNSTON/AP

U.S. President George W. Bush is applauded by the army and National Guard troops during a speech at Fort Polk, La., yesterday in which he defended the U.S. war in Iraq. Fort Polk is home to more than 6,300 troops who are in Iraq.

[jwalsh07]

Idiots all over Washington, right, left and center.

How the hell are our intellignece agencies supposed to know more than Saddam Hussein about Iraqs WMD programs.

Richard Perle should STFU and somebody, anybody, should find out what the hell happened to the anthrax, vx and mustard gas.

[spald]

"...should find out what the hell happened to the anthrax, vx and mustard gas."

Nobody has checked the basements in the Iraqi mosques.

[Ingtar]

Good point!

[Happy2BMe]

"Nobody has checked the basements in the Iraqi mosques."

Nawwww . . ya think?

[Mr. Mojo]

somebody, anybody, should find out what the hell happened to the anthrax, vx and mustard gas.

Yep, weapons that had been confirmed that Saddam possessed. If it takes going into Syria to get them, then to Syria we should go.

[Mr. Mojo]

Saddam could easily have hidden the whole of his WMD (bio/chem) aresenal in just a few basement-sized rooms, and they could be anywhere -- under mosques, or in residential neighborhoods.

[spald]

"Saddam could easily have hidden the whole of his WMD (bio/chem) aresenal in just a few basement-sized rooms, and they could be anywhere -- under mosques, or in residential neighborhoods."

Good point. But there's a difference. Our troops have scoured residential neighborhoods, gaining access to any basement. Has there been one inspection of a mosque? Seems to me if I were an evil dictator, I'd hide the material in a place where the infidel could not tread.

[Happy2BMe]

"If it takes going into Syria to get them, then to Syria we should go."

Methinks the Syrians would have destroyed them by now as well.

[Mr. Mojo]

Yeah, mosques would seem the most likely place they would be. Our greatest enemy could very well turn out to be political correctness, not Islamism.

I'd imagine that we've indeed looked in quite a few basements in residential neighborhoods, but is it possible in the relatively short time we've been there to have searched even close to all of them? I doubt it. Iraq is about the size of California with nearly the same population. That's a lot of basements.

[Mr. Mojo]

Methinks the Syrians would have destroyed them by now as well.

Possibly, or they could've sent their good buddies Hezbollah a nice gift.

[F16Fighter]

"Mosques would seem the most likely place they would be. Our greatest enemy could very well turn out to be political correctness, not Islamism."

Right on BOTH counts.

Can you imagine Chief Inspector Hans Blix or even American occupational forces permitted to inspect the bowels of secret catacomb and chambers of Mosques? It's THE perfect place for "safe-keeping."

Heck, aren't snipers STILL taking pot shots at our guys with impunity from within, on top, and around those "holy" Mosques?

Enough tip-toeing around these b@stards.

[Mr. Mojo]

Enough tip-toeing around these b@stards.

Agree completely. But with this being an election year and all do you think the Administration is more likely or less likely to toss the PC handbook out the window and do what needs to be done? Busting up some mosques would be some horrible PR (if the press found out about it), especially if we came up empty in the search. On the other hand, failing to do so is just as politically risky -- come Nov. if no WMD's are found the Prez is going to have a lot more difficult time getting re-elected.

Personally, I'd turn that hellhole upside down .....mosques be damned.

[F16Fighter]

"Busting up some mosques would be some horrible PR (if the press found out about it), especially if we came up empty in the search. On the other hand, failing to do so is just as politically risky -- come Nov. if no WMD's are found the Prez is going to have a lot more difficult time getting re-elected....

Personally, I'd turn that hellhole upside down .....mosques be damned. "

Hey -- We can go with Plan "A" without Geraldo and "find" what we need while de-infesting, OR with Plan "B" just after the election when we can go into "ape-sh*t mode." ;-)

[Mr. Mojo]

I hear ya ;)

lol......Geraldo probably dreams of redeeming his Al Capone embarrassment with an Iraq WMD "vault" find. It would make his life.

[Fledermaus]

Perle says of the CIA and DIA: "I think, of course, heads should roll," he said. "When you discover that you have an organization that doesn't get it right time after time, you change the organization, including the people.

Wow! Someone make this man Pope for his pure genius! But he obviously doesn't understand he's talking about government.

When government gets it right, you raise their budgets and promote the idiots! Every single federal government agency, including a large part of the military, can be characterized in the same manner.

And if you point blame at the CIA and ignore the even more incredible crap coming out of the State Dept. you are looking for scapegoats.

Also, does anyone really think in an election year that Bush would fire Tenet? With the liberal, so-called mainstream media and the 40% of the population that are just plain stupid (Democrats, liberals, commies, most libertarians) they'll declare Bush's firing as PROOF he's covering up his lies about WMD's, blah, blah, blah.

And the sheepol zombies will buy it faster than a DVD of the Vagina Monologues.

[NewRomeTacitus]

Initial reports claimed 40 vast sites to house munitions. It was also said that Saddam ordered the nasty stuff to be randomly interspersed, without specific labeling, among the standard types for maximum terror effect (and preventing his own troops from withholding their use. Saddam trusted no one.)

Our guys are still going through the first few of these stockpiles. Herr Blix and his ilk were expecting what, big neon signs pointing to these items like something out of a Warner Bros. cartoon?

[mercy]

It is so much worse than you know ... unless you have read Robert Baer's books that is. It isn't really the fault of the CIA although anyone in management within that org should hang their head in shame. The CIA was purposely gutted starting with Reagan. Bush Sr was a major culprit. Clinton finished the job. The idea was do NOTHING that might damage the House of Saud. Just follow the money.

The fact that we lost all intelligence gathering ability throughout Central Asia was just the dominoe affect.