Flynt Leverett, a former CIA analyst and former National Security Council adviser in the Bush administration, was among those celebrating this week, and praised Fingar and his colleagues. "We seem to have lucked out and have individuals who resist back-channel politics and tell it how it is," he said. "That is what the CIA and other agencies are supposed to do."
fyi
On the subject of enriched uranium and Iran’s intentions, here’s a “not so” hypothetical:
If you were a nuclear-ambitious country (like Iran), what would you want to possess, (1) a fully optimized set drawings and no enriched uranium or (2) a ready supply of weapons grade enriched uranium and not so well optimized drawings?
Yep, a 50th percentile fifth grader would get that answer right. But not the State Department of the United States of America. And apparently not Thomas Fingar.
These are the guys who scare me the most and to think the CIA and State Department is loaded with them blows my mind.
Absolutely fraudlent statement. No truth in this claim at all. More of the revisionist history being spun by the Left to try and hide the fact they have been all wrong about Iraq from day one.
Again, an absolute lie. Saddam had them, was pursing them, and we have found some and have a pretty good idea where the rest went. Another example of how the Political Left screams a lie and then keeps screaming it until people believe the lie truth.
Wait until there is some nuclear incident somewhere and watch all the “blamers” and “spinners” go ballistic.
Thomas Fingar ping. Thanks Ernest.
The federal agency responsible for national intelligence estimates yesterday defended its report on Iran against charges that it was crafted primarily by former State Department officials who infused their personal politics into the report to undercut the Bush administration.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071208/NATION/112080051/1001
The authors of the NIE have committed Treason, in my estimation. They are selling us out to their liberal agenda, and that of their fellow travelers.
One month after Iran was named an "axis of evil" nation, Haass went to the Middle East and told Israeli officials that they needed to "engage" the mullahs. And earlier this year [2003], Haass tried to undermine the president's clear determination to not give in to North Korean demands for one-on-one talks. This January, he sent out a cable blasting the president's approach in what an administration official labeled a "broadside."
If Haass is effectively restricted from arranging official sit-downs with Iran, he may go through back-channels to achieve essentially the same result. Earlier this month, Haass protege Flynt Leverett had a "chat" with a former head of Iran's military at a political conference in Athens...
...The Iranian with whom Leverett had his "informal" conversation is himself not a government official, though he still is very much a power broker, with proteges of his dotting the top echelons of the Iranian government. It is most likely that Iran saw Leverett in a similar light. Leverett was not just a recent retiree; he is extremely close—personally and professionally—to Haass. ...
It is not clear if Leverett's supposedly spontaneous meeting was pre-cleared by Haass or anyone else at State, but it is clear he exercised the same questionable judgment used by other Foggy Bottom officials. The man Leverett so happily met with was Mohsen Rezai, the former head Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Rezai is an active supporter of Hezbollah, which has killed more Americans than any other terrorist outfit besides al-Qaeda. Rezai has also long been suspected of ties to a deadly attack in Lebanon in 1983 that killed 238 U.S. troops. -----STATE DEPARTMENT'S FAVORITE MULLAHS (Anti-America best friends - State Dept.) Townhall ^ | 6/2/03 | Joel Mowbray