Posted on 07/25/2005 10:03:04 PM PDT by Sam Hill
Ex-CIA Accuse Bush of Manipulating Iraq Evidence
Monday, March 17, 2003
WASHINGTON — Invoking
the name of a Pentagon whistle-blower, a small group of retired, anti-war CIA officers are accusing the Bush administration of manipulating evidence against Iraq in order to push war while burying evidence that could show Iraq's compliance with U.N demands for disarmament.
The 25-member group, Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, composed mostly of former CIA analysts along with a few operational agents, is urging employees inside the intelligence agency to break the law and leak any information they have that could show the Bush administration is engineering the release of evidence to match its penchant for war.
VIPS member Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran who gave intelligence briefings to top Reagan officials before retiring in 1990, said the administration has not made the case that Iraq has ties to Al Qaeda and is providing information that does not meet an intelligence professional's standard of proof.
"It's been cooked to a recipe, and the recipe is high policy," McGovern said. "That's why a lot of my former colleagues are holding their noses these days."
But the CIA said McGovern doesn't have any authority to speak of the quality of intelligence policy-makers are reviewing.
"He left the agency over a decade ago," spokesman Mark Mansfield said. "He's hardly in a position to comment knowledgeably on that subject."
VIPS say their appeals to CIA staff are an attempt to evoke another Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret study on U.S. involvement in Vietnam.
Leaking classified national defense information is illegal, and CIA officers, who take a secrecy oath when they join could lose their security clearances or jobs, and may even face prosecution...
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
There have to be some reporters who are Freepers.
This needs to be exposed.
The FBI is investigating the CIA....this should be sent to them....
Any Freepers out there who are in the FBI?
Or who know someone in the FBI?
Sam, you and Mad get together and write that up and post it as a separate thread.........I'll hit my big ping lists.
Everybody needs to know what this guy is like; be sure to put the circumstances of the emails in the article.
I will forward on the article to Sweet Baby James.
Sounds like to me that these guys are violating the law.
I just don't like rats like these, never have and never will.
If these guys will turn on their own they will turn on anyone that suits their fancy.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria (January 12, 1949 – December 2, 1993) gained world infamy as a Colombian drug lord who became one of the richest men in the world by smuggling cocaine into the United States and countries around the world. Members of the U.S. and Colombian Governments, news reporters and the general public alike considered him to be one of the most brutally ruthless yet ambitious and powerful drug dealers in history. [edit]
Life
Escobar began what would become one of the most successful criminal careers in history as a teenage car thief in the streets of Medellín, Colombia. He eventually moved into the cocaine business and began building an enormous drug empire during the 1970s. During the peak years, it was alleged that he earned as much as 1 million dollars a day from his drug dealings.
During the 1980s, Escobar became known internationally as his drug network gained notoriety; El Cartel de Medellín, is said to have controlled a large portion of the drugs that entered into Mexico, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic with cocaine base brought mostly from Peru and Bolivia, as Colombian coca was initially of substandard quality. Escobar's product reached many other nations, mostly around the Americas, although it is said that his network reached as far as Asia.
Escobar bribed countless government officials, judges and other politicians and he often personally executed uncooperative subordinates and had anyone he viewed as a threat assassinated. Corruption and intimidation characterized the Colombian system during Escobar's heyday. He had an effective, inescapable strategy that was referred to as plata o plomo; Spanish for silver or lead, intended to mean "accept a bribe or face assassination." He was responsible for the killing of three presidential candidates in Colombia, as well as for the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 and, as some analysts argue, the storming of the Colombian Supreme Court by left-wing guerillas resulting in the murder of half the judges on the court in the ensuing firefight. The Cartel de Medellín was also involved in a deadly drug war with its main rival, the Cartel De Cali for most of its existence.
At the height of his empire, Escobar was estimated by Forbes magazine to be the seventh richest man in the world1, with his Medellín Cartel controlling 80 percent of the world's cocaine market. His organization had fleets of planes, boats, and expensive vehicles. Vast properties and tracts of lands were also controlled by the cartel under Escobar due to the almost limitless influx of cash during this period. Estimates are that the Medellín cartel was taking in up to $25 billion annually at its zenith.
While an enemy of the United States and Colombian governments, Escobar was a hero to many in Medellín; he was a natural at public relations and he worked to create goodwill among Colombia's poor. A lifelong sports fan, he was credited with building soccer stadiums and sponsoring little league soccer teams in the city. He worked hard to cultivate his Robin Hood image and frequently distributed money to the poor. The population of Medellín often helped Escobar by serving as lookouts, hiding information from the authorities, or doing whatever else they could do to protect him.
In 1991, Escobar turned himself into the Colombian government in order to avoid extradition to the United States or assassination by a rival cartel. Escobar was "jailed" in his own luxuroius private prison, La Catedral, which he was allowed to build for his confinement in return for turning himself in. He negotiated an agreement with the Colombian government whereby he would be jailed for a mandatory five-year sentence and guaranteed no extradition to the United States. However, his "prison" was actually more of a country-club fortress and he showed little regard for the sanctity of his sentence there as he was often seen outside of the jail: shopping in Medellín or at parties, soccer games, and other public places. After an account appeared in the local media showing photos of his lavish jail/residence and claiming that he had murdered several business associates when they came to meet him at La Catedral, public opinion forced the government to act. When a government official attempted to move Escobar to another jail on July 22, 1992, he escaped, fearing that he would be extradited to the United States.
In 1992, US Delta Force operators (and later Navy SEALs from SEAL Team Six) joined the all-out manhunt for the escaped kingpin. They trained and advised a special Colombian police task-force, known as the Search Bloc, which had been created to locate Escobar and bring him to justice. Later, as the conlict between Escobar and US/Colombian goverments dragged on and the numbers of his enemies grew, a shadowy group known as Los Pepes (People Persecuted by Pablo Escobar), carried out a bloody campaign in which more than 300 of Escobar's associates/relatives were slain and large amounts of his cartel's property was destroyed. Some observers claim that members of the Search Bloc, in their efforts to find and punish Escobar, either colluded with Los Pepes or were moonlighting as both Search Bloc and Los Pepes simultaneously. This coordination was conducted mainly through sharing intelligence in order to allow Los Pepes to bring down the organizational mountain that protected Escobar, but there are reports that Search Bloc members may have directly participated in the missions of the Los Pepes death squads. This brings into question the role the US played in gathering intelligence on Escobar's organization because of its later use by the Los Pepes organization in its crusade of summary executions.
The war against Escobar ended on December 2, 1993, as he tried to elude the Search Bloc one more time. Using radio triangulation technology provided as part of the US efforts, a Colombian electronic surveillance team found him hiding in a middle-class barrio in Medellín. A shootout between Escobar and the Search Bloc personnel ensued. Some believe US special ops snipers may have taken part in the final shootout with Escobar. Accordingly, how Escobar was killed during the confrontation has been debated, but it is known that he was cornered on the rooftops of Medellín and suffered gunshots to the leg, back, and the fatal one behind his ear.
The hunt for Escobar was documented in Mark Bowden's book, Killing Pablo, which is being made into a motion picture.
After Escobar's death the Medellín Cartel fragmented and the cocaine market soon became dominated by the rival Cali Cartel, until the mid-1990s when its leaders too were either killed or captured.
Good, let's get the ball rolling on this...give ol Larry boy a taste of what FR can do...
The session took an awkward turn when witness Ray McGovern, a former intelligence analyst, declared that the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration "neocons" so "the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world."
Ray McGovern said this? It's a sad day when Democrats start blaming the war on some Jewish plot. We're in worse shape than I thought.
Regarding James Moran, member of Congress, the Boston Strong Boy got in trouble before by stating that it was Jews who were promoting the war in Iraq. So it doesn't surprise me that he was looking for justification for his previous remarks from McGovern. Are there any Jews that still vote for this clown, and if so, why?
Howlin, can you make sure that I'm on your ping list?
Yes, he did.
More than once.
Live Thread: John Conyers' Downing Street Memo Circus, C-SPAN 3, 2:30 p.m. EDT 6/16/05
You are now. :-)
Actually, they are encouraging people to commit a form of treason. No CIA employee owns classified information, whether they agree with it or not. It belongs to the US government. It's no more legal to leak information to the media than it is to take government car and use it to take a vacation. If you see laws being broken there is a venue for complaints, and it's called the Inspector General's office. Reports of wrong doing MUST be inspected by the IG. What would these scum bags say if an officer in combat defied his commander and ordered his troops to lay down their weapons because he didn't agree with the war he was fighting in. Anyone who leaks classified information for any reason should be prosecuted.
Thanks.
Bump for a terrific find.
They are not representative, they are a tiny minority. I don't doubt a lot of CIA officers disagreed with Clinton's policies in the 90's, but they either followed it or resigned. These former CIA officers are a disgrace.
Add me, please. (Don't bother to respond to this.)
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