Posted on 05/25/2004 11:49:06 PM PDT by F14 Pilot
PINGgggg!
Interestingly, the British government seems to have invested much in bolstering its ties to Iran, too.
Britain and EU support the Mullahs in Iran!
And guess who pops up yet again? Why yes, it's good ol' former NSC guy Vincent Cannistraro of Sami Al Arian fame...
Chalabi was used by all concerned for th Oil-for-Food scam. High ups in the US were in on it too. At least thats what they want us to think.
I have a feeling that the State Department and the CIA will not like the results of this investigation.
It comes as no shock to find Vincent is trying to smear Feith, for the Feith memo put a hole in their bulkhead bigger than the one in the side of the USS Cole.
Vincent's claim in the article above concerning the mobile labs is BS- we found several of those labs and three separate teams of experts looked at them and all three teams made the same conclusions about what they were, though the press tried to fabricate 'dissention' by quoting people- who hadn't even seen the labs personally- as if they were experts and part of one of the teams.
Not to mention that the whole idea that the war was based only on intel from the INC [just the false info and not the accurate info they provided] is bogus- the war was going to occur because Iraq never intended to abide by the cease fire agreements, never intended to abide by any of the UN resolutions, never intended to return the abducted Kuwaitis, the US Naval captain, and the American civilians it held prisoner, and because Iraq was harboring terrorists... even before 9/11.
Washington Abuzz Over a New Kind of Scandal [Yep, Plame Worked With Foley!]
LA Times ^ | October 1, 2003 | Doyle McManus and Bob Drogin
Posted on 10/01/2003 7:08:58 AM PDT by seamole
....Wilson's wife works with Foley in the CIA's Nonproliferation Center....."Foley fought with Joseph about keeping the Niger claim out of the State of the Union," Cannistraro explained. "Cheney and Libby made sure it got in. Then you get a report from the CIA casting doubt on the authenticity" — Ambassador Wilson's report.
...She had told friends she was an energy industry consultant...
David Manners, a former CIA case agent in the Middle East...: "If the implication is she ran clandestine operations around the world using her true name, then the real story is: What kind of crazy operation was she running? Because if you're operating clandestinely under your true name, you're a fool."
Excerpted - click for full article ^
Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scandal1oct01,1,1890560.story?coll=la-home-leftrail
"Well, the Secretary of State's speech relied heavily on material gathered by international intelligence agencies, including Australia's.
Ironically, while the Bush Administration wants this speech to galvanise the international community to go to war against Iraq, its own intelligence agency doesn't see war as the best way of insuring that the world is made safe from Saddam Hussein.
Indeed, last year the CIA chief warned the President that attacking Iraq could lead to catastrophe by provoking Saddam Hussein to use any weapons of mass destruction he had.
Nevertheless, intelligence photos and phone intercepts in particular were the most compelling parts of Colin Powell's presentation today.
So how solid is this evidence?
One person well placed to judge is the former head of the CIA's counter-terrorism unit, Vincent Cannistraro, who's also a former director of intelligence for the National Security Council.
Mr Cannistraro spoke to me a short time ago from his home in Virginia.
VINCENT CANNISTRARO: I was impressed. I think it was a compelling speech. Taken in totality, I think the speech makes a persuasive case that Saddam's engaged in concealing a program of weapons of mass destruction.
I think you could probably nitpick individual pieces of it, and there was certainly no one incident that would prove to be a smoking gun. But I think as taken as a, as a whole, it's a pretty clear pattern of deception by Saddam.
ELEANOR HALL: What was the most convincing evidence?
VINCENT CANNISTRARO: Well, there, there were a couple of pieces. I think the audiotape in which a conversation between two Republican Guard officials takes place and one talks about nerve agents. That certainly was a startling piece of evidence.
That, and the overhead photography of a chemical decontamination plant. That was also verified by a human source on the ground. When you had both a technical collection and human source collection reporting on the same ground event, I think that made it a very conclusive case.
... ELEANOR HALL: Do you believe that the case for war has been made?
VINCENT CANNISTRARO: No, I don't believe the case for war has been made. It is not a case that can be made that war is necessary now in order to stop Saddam. I mean, he's years away from a nuclear program.
He's essentially contained. He's under the microscope of the United Nations. He's being subjected to a pretty rigorous weapons inspection regime. And he can't really move. So I don't think we've made the case for going to war. That's more of a political judgement.
ELEANOR HALL: It's an interesting position that, that intelligence officers are, are in at the moment, isn't it? Because I remember the last time we spoke we were talking about the advice from the CIA to the Government. That in fact going to war against Saddam Hussein was a sure way to make him use any weapons of mass destruction that he may have.
VINCENT CANNISTRARO: And clearly that is the CIA analysis that he's unlikely, Saddam is unlikely to use his weapons of mass destruction unless he is attacked, and then he, in that case, is likely to bring the house down upon him."
So, before the war his position was that our intel was compelling, particularly direct tapes, not third hand fed reports. But that we should leave Saddam alone, because if we attacked him he use WMDs on us.
Read what Michael Rubin of the CPA and AEI after returning from his post. He claimed that the Brits support any form of dictatorship in Iraq and have extremely close relations with the Iranian government.
vincent cannistraro ping
"That he (Saddam) was promoting al-Qaeda is absurd," Cannistraro said. --- USA Today, July 13, 2003And here's Vinnie singing a different tune during the Clinton administration:
"It's clear that the Iraqis would like to have bin Laden in Iraq. The Iraqis have all the technological elements, the tradecraft that bin Laden lacks, and they have Abu Nidal." --- Vincent Cannistraro quoted in "Some Analysts Fear a bin Laden, Saddam Pairing," by John Walcott, The Charlotte Observer, February 14, 1999.
49 posted on 10/01/2003 1:17:03 PM PDT by browardchad
fyi
ping
Interesting.
Helping setting up a Shiite theocracy in Iraq would certainly help them score political points in Tehran. Plus, what would become of a Shiite Iraq sitting next to a Shiite Iran, especially given the fact there's no Iraqi army anymore ?
There is an Iraqi army.
Interesting. One can only imagine what the full story really is.
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