Cynthia McKinney's CIA Agent Involved in Plame Letter

Revisiting the issue that helped spur her ouster from Congress three years ago, Rep. Cynthia McKinney led a Capitol Hill hearing Friday on whether the Bush administration was involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The eight-hour hearing, timed to mark the first anniversary of the release of the Sept. 11 commission's report on the attacks, drew dozens of contrarians and conspiracy theorists who suggest President Bush purposely ignored warnings or may even have had a hand in the attack — claims participants said the commission ignored.

That, in and of itself, is nothing unusual for Cynthia McKinney. But, the story gets more interesting as you read on:

The commission's report was not a rush to judgment, it was a rush to exoneration," said John Judge, a member of McKinney's staff and a representative of a Web site dedicated to raising questions about the Sept. 11 commission's report.

The White House and the commission have dismissed such questions as unfounded conspiracy theories.

McKinney first raised questions about Bush's involvement shortly after the attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, generating a furious response from fellow Democrats in Washington and voters in Georgia, who ousted her in 2002.

"What we are doing is asking the unanswered questions of the 9/11 families," McKinney, a DeKalb County Democrat who won back her seat in 2004, said during the proceedings.

She rebuffed a reporter's repeated attempts to ask her why she would so boldly embrace the same claims that led to her downfall.

"Congresswoman McKinney is viewed as a contrarian," panelist Melvin Goodman, a former CIA official, said. "And I hope someday her views will be considered conventional wisdom."

Who is Melvin Goodman? Why, one of the signatories to this letter regarding the Plame leak. The letter that has been widely trumpeted by Josh Marshall and others.

Assuming there is only one former CIA official named Mel Goodman, it appears Mr. Goodman has been very busy lately. His inclusion as a signatory also makes the letter from former 'outraged' CIA officials look less like straight talk than it did initially. That in and of itself does not invalidate the letter, but it makes it look much less like the pristine indictment against all things Bush that Mr. Marshall would have you believe.

In continuing our examination of Josh Marshall's favorite letter, we're moseying on down the list of signatories, and their credibility ain't exactly improving.

Ray McGovern, for instance, contributed an article to the ultra-left truthout.org arguing that the Downing Street Memo conclusively proves that Bush deliberately forged intelligence to get us into war in Iraq. Now, are we to believe that he just innocently and in a non-partisan manner became concerned about what happened to poor old Valerie Plame? If you're still unconvinced, read his hysterical rant at DemocracyNow about what a right-wing rag the WaPo is. You might also be interested to know that McGovern thinks that the reason 9/11 happened was because of "gross ineptitude and gross malfeasance" on the part of the Bush administration. They should have paid more attention to Sandy Berger. I'm serious, it's all in there.

One of the other signatories to the letter, David MacMichael, also belongs to McGovern's group, Veterans Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which has been virulently anti-war since well before the Plame situation exploded. Observe some of the quotes from MacMichael during an interview with lefty host Amy Goodman:

It is all happening because there are lies upon lies, deceit upon deceit that have been used to justify this illegal war on against an unprovoked enemy, or an enemy that does not provoke us.

AMY GOODMAN:Now one of the things we are talking about a lot and seeing a lot is that the same people that were there during the Reagan-Bush years and even before, the Wolfowitzes the Rumsfelds, Cheneys were there then. What was George Bush’s view of these people then?

Those were 1981-1983 under Reagan and under William Casey. In fact I embarked on that job the day Casey came in. I can assure you that the way in which the National Intelligence Council and the National Intelligence officers, the directing officers in there were stacked during the Casey years, meant that intelligence was designed, and I focused principally on Central America, the whole Iran Contra thing later, truthful analysis was not the highest priority there. The determination was to produce analyses that would support the previously decided upon policy so for me, getting back involved with Ray McGovern here and VIPS dealing with this current situation, its kind of like déjà vu all over again. It’s a familiar process.

Additionally, several of the other signatories had been outspoken critics of the administration's decision to go to war before the incident with Plame erupted, including Col. Patrick Lang. Vince Cannistraro was part of the group of CIA officials who suspiciously began speaking critically about the Bush administration in the month before the general election, rather than at a time when it might have been practically useful (such as, before the war).

This letter becomes less credible by the minute. We are still looking for a signatory that didn't have an axe to grind with Bush BEFORE the outing of Plame.

Nick Danger's FReeper run story-"Larry Johnson, Expert and Prophet"

I'm not aware of anything at all Larry Johnson did before the outing of Plame

Well, one of the things he did, which you may wish to consider when assessing his credibility and his grasp of world issues, is author a piece for the New York Times on July 10, 2001, called The Declining Terrorist Threat. It seems that I myself dug that puppy out, on 9/11.

In that piece, written while the Atta Boys were in flight school, Mr. Johnson assured us that Americans had little to fear from terrorism, and especially not from Islamic terrorism.

He was basically selling the line that a trumped-up "fear of terrorism" was being used to justify unwarranted military expenditures:

"I am not soft on terrorism; I believe strongly in remaining prepared to confront it. However, when the threat of terrorism is used to justify everything from building a missile defense to violating constitutional rights (as in the case of some Arab-Americans imprisoned without charge), it is time to take a deep breath and reflect on why we are so fearful. Part of the blame can be assigned to 24-hour broadcast news operations too eager to find a dramatic story line in the events of the day and to pundits who repeat myths while ignoring clear empirical data. Politicians of both parties are also guilty. They warn constituents of dire threats and then appropriate money for redundant military installations and new government investigators and agents."

"Finally, there are bureaucracies in the military and in intelligence agencies that are desperate to find an enemy to justify budget growth. In the 1980's, when international terrorism was at its zenith, NATO and the United States European Command pooh-poohed the notion of preparing to fight terrorists. They were too busy preparing to fight the Soviets. With the evil empire gone, they "discovered" terrorism as an important priority."

So that's Larry Johnson, and that's his axe. Sixty days before the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were attacked, Larry Johnson was saying, "Although high-profile incidents have fostered the perception that terrorism is becoming more lethal, the numbers say otherwise, and early signs suggest that the decade beginning in 2000 will continue the downward trend."

However one poster solds Danger: "Seems a little unreasonable to play Monday Morning Quarterback and then say that he (Larry Johnson" has an axe to grind because he was wrong. "

But Danger responds in part: "The axe he was grinding was the long-time Democrat mantra that we spend too much on defense. What the excuse was this time hardly matters; it's always something.... ..."let's be clear that when he (Larry Johnson) steps into a heated partisan dispute, he does not get to wear the cloak of objectivity. He's just another ax-grinder vying for attention."

UPDATE 07-23-05 10:39:00 EDT by Dales: Nick Danger's info on Larry C. Johnson.

One other interesting factoid..By: kowalski who points out:
"Melvin Goodman and Amy Goodman have actually talked to each other, quite extensively, on this subject. And done an interview together on Democracy NOW! So for anyone who was thinking of responding that I wasn't making the connection clearly enough, I'll let Democracy NOW!s website speak for itself."

"Internationally acclaimed journalist Amy Goodman, host of the national daily, radio/TV program Democracy Now!, is on a national tour to mark the launch of her first book The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them. Join us for this exciting event. Support independent media. Tell your friends about the event:

Spoke in Chicago, yesterday July 23, 12:00-1:30PM
ILCA's 50th Anniversary Convention
Chicago City Centre Holiday Inn
300 East Ohio Street

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