Posted on 10/29/2003 7:18:01 AM PST by dead
A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line.
"What these people are doing now makes Iran-Contra [a Reagan administration national security scandal] look like amateur hour. . . it's worse than Iran-Contra, worse than what happened in Vietnam," said Karen Kwiatkowski, a former air force lieutenant-colonel.
"[President] George Bush isn't in control . . . the country's been hijacked," she said, describing how "key [governmental] areas of neoconservative concern were politically staffed".
Ms Kwiatkowski, who retired this year after 20 years service, was a Middle East specialist in the office of the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, headed by Douglas Feith.
She described "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress", adding that "in order to take that first step - Iraq - lies had to be told to Congress to bring them on board".
Ms Kwiatkowski said the pursuit of national security decisions often bypassed "civil service and active-duty military professionals", and was handled instead by political appointees who shared common ideological ties.
There was speculation earlier this year that such an ideologue group had emerged, and that it was behind the US attack on an Iraqi convoy in Syria in June.
The New York Times quoted Patrick Lang, a former senior Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) official, as saying that many in the Government believed the incursion was an effort by ideologues to disrupt co-operation between the US and Syria.
Ms Kwiatkowski said there was an extra-governmental network operating outside normal structures and practices, "a network of political appointees in key positions who felt they needed to take some action, to make things happen in a foreign affairs, national security way". She said Pentagon personnel and the DIA were pressured to favourably alter assessments and reports.
In a separate interview, Chalmers Johnson, an authority on US policy, said that the Administration's neo-conservatives had in effect seized power from Mr Bush.
Dr Johnson said the neo-conservatives had pursued an agenda outlined in the controversial 1992 Defence Planning Guidance. That document, drawn up at the direction of Mr Cheney when he was defence secretary, said the world's only superpower should not be cautious about asserting its power.
A barf alert would be nice on pieces like this.
If you can’t discern that from the title I posted, I think you may be in over your head on this forum.
Sydney Morning Herald ^ | October 30, 2003 | Marian Wilkinson
Posted on 10/29/2003 6:51 AM PST by dead
What about this title makes it obvious that this is a barf hit piece?
I still think you are a du troll.
I am. Deep undercover though, so don’t tell anybody.
Besides, if you really can't correctly guess what the tone of an article titled, "After yet another bloody day in Iraq, Bush may have to cut and run" is likely to be, you really are in over your head.
I never put "barf alerts" in the titles of threads I post. Unlike other people, I assume a certain basic level of reading comprehension amongst Freepers that enables them to form their own opinions on articles without me holding their hand and telling them whether or not they should agree with it.
Your posts may lead me to reconsider that assumption.
You are obviously better suited to communicating via pictures than you are to words.
Stick to the "Caption this" threads and you’ll do fine.
Ms Alphabet needs to take in some fresh air with a walk on the mall in D.C. I recommend she review the U.S. Constitution housed nearby. She should pay particular attention to Article II and then perhaps she can pull that old rolled up copy of her oath as a commisioned officer out of the closet and study it (for the first time). Dare I ask the question, where was Ms. Alphabet circa 1993- 2000 - incinerating military absentee ballots as the DoD Voting Control Officer?
LOL, thank you.
You are obviously better suited to communicating via pictures than you are to words.
I agree. I would say the pic does a nice job of summing up what I bet a lot of people think about you.
Stick to the "Caption this" threads and you’ll do fine.
Thank you again. For a moment there I was afraid that you weren't concerned for my welfare.
As I said earlier I was going to apologize for misreading your headline. But your holier than thou attitude stopped that apology.
If putting someone down makes you feel superior, so mote it be.
Bingo.
I told you stick to pictures. I think this one would have adequately conveyed your bug-eyed insane yet strangely humorous rage:
You can use that picture in lieu of words on other threads if you like.
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