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Former CIA officers appeal to current analysts to make public any anti-war information
AP | 3/14/03 | JOHN J. LUMPKIN

Posted on 03/14/2003 11:45:02 AM PST by kattracks

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A small group composed mostly of retired CIA officers is appealing to colleagues still inside to go public with any evidence the Bush administration is slanting intelligence to support its case for war with Iraq.

Members of the group contend the Bush administration has released information on Iraq that meets only its ends -- while ignoring or withholding contrary reporting.

They also say the administration's public evidence about the immediacy of Iraq's threat to the United States and its alleged ties to al-Qaida is unconvincing, and accuse policy-makers of pushing out some information that does not meet an intelligence professional's standards of proof.

"It's been cooked to a recipe, and the recipe is high policy," said Ray McGovern, a 27-year CIA veteran who briefed top Reagan administration security officials before retiring in 1990. "That's why a lot of my former colleagues are holding their noses these days."

A CIA spokesman suggested McGovern and his supporters were unqualified to describe the quality of intelligence provided to policy-makers.

"He left the agency over a decade ago," said spokesman Mark Mansfield. "He's hardly in a position to comment knowledgeably on that subject."

McGovern's group, calling itself Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, includes about 25 retired officers, mostly from the CIA's analytical branch but with a smattering from its operational side and other agencies, he said.

Carrying an anti-war bent, they invoke the names of whistle-blowers like 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 take a secrecy oath when they join. Prosecutions of violations are rare, but government personnel caught leaking nondefense information may lose their security clearances, or their jobs.

Federal law also offers protections to whistle-blowers in some cases.

McGovern and his supporters acknowledge their appeal to their colleagues inside the CIA and other agencies is unusual. The CIA's culture tends to keep disputes inside the family, and many intelligence officers shun discussions of American policy -- such as whether war on Iraq is justified -- saying it is their job to provide information, not to decide how to act on it.

McGovern, who now works in an inner-city outreach ministry in Washington, said of his group's request, "It goes against the whole ethic of secrecy and going through channels, and going to the (Inspector General). It takes a courageous person to get by all that, and say, 'I've got a higher duty."'

Agency spokesman Mansfield said, "Our role is to call it like we see it, to provide objective, unvarnished assessments. That's the code we live by, and that's what policy-makers expect from us."

The administration says its information is sound. During Secretary of State Colin Powell's address to the United Nations Security Council last month, he said, "These are not assertions. What we are giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid intelligence."

But other countries have challenged the accuracy of several of Powell's statements. And it is no secret that in the past some people with access to intelligence information -- such as members of Congress or a presidential administration -- have leaked selected pieces that lend support to a given policy. This can provide the public with a less-than-complete picture of what the CIA and other agencies have learned.

Another member of McGovern's group, Patrick Eddington, resigned from the CIA in 1996 to protest what he describes as the agency's refusal to investigate some of the possible causes of Gulf War veterans' medical problems.

Eddington said would-be whistle-blowers can privately contact members of Congress to get their message out.

"They have to basically put conscience before career," he said.

Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief, said he saw little chance of CIA analysts going public to contradict the Bush administration.

"Sure, there's a lot of disagreement among analysts in the intelligence community on how things are going to be used (by policy-makers)," he said. "But you are not going to see people making public resignations. That would mean giving up your career."



TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: armchairspies; canastraro; canistraro; cannistraro; cia; eddington; ellsberg; gulfwarsyndrome; leakers; mcgovern; patrickeddington; raymcgovern; vincecannistraro; vips
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1 posted on 03/14/2003 11:45:03 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
What next!
2 posted on 03/14/2003 11:48:02 AM PST by Dog ( Groundhog Day II -- the Sequel.....America held hostage by the UN.......where everyday is the same)
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To: kattracks
A small group composed mostly of retired CIA officers

From a recent Administration, no doubt.

3 posted on 03/14/2003 11:48:39 AM PST by JennysCool
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To: kattracks
The LONGER President Bush BLIX's, the more AMMO he gives to our enemies like those above.

4 posted on 03/14/2003 11:48:39 AM PST by funkywbr
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To: JennysCool
No doubt.

Bubba not getting enough info?

5 posted on 03/14/2003 11:50:10 AM PST by kattracks
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To: kattracks
Does anyone understand that we are and have been in a cease-fire with this country. If there were no 9/11 we would still be perfectly, even overly legitimate in ousting the Iraqi regime. Including 9/11 ends any argument.

What did these guys learn in the CIA? Was it that Iraq was really just a pawn of US imperialism?
6 posted on 03/14/2003 11:50:12 AM PST by JmyBryan
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To: kattracks
So, this guy is the Daniel Ellsberg of the CIA?
7 posted on 03/14/2003 11:50:29 AM PST by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: kattracks
It is, of course, easy to ask other people to break their oaths and go to prison. No one with any integrity inside the Agency is going to release anything, so if there are "leaks" in response to this they will not have any credibility.

As an aside, I have a close friend that I know worked for the CIA for 4 years "in the field", and he has never even admitted that is who he was working for, let alone talked about anything he was doing.
8 posted on 03/14/2003 11:50:53 AM PST by coramdeo
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To: kattracks
Members of the group contend the Bush administration has released information on Iraq that meets only its ends -- while ignoring or withholding contrary reporting.

That's sorta the point.

Methinks these clowns are retired for a reason...

9 posted on 03/14/2003 11:52:29 AM PST by IncPen
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To: coramdeo
Agreed; these people speaking out are probably secretaries!
10 posted on 03/14/2003 11:53:18 AM PST by Peach
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To: JennysCool
Some guy that retired a decade ago wants to challenge the Bush Administration? Give me a break! They should shut up, just as clinton and carter should.
11 posted on 03/14/2003 11:53:19 AM PST by Wait4Truth (God Bless our President!)
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To: kattracks
"It takes a courageous person to get by all that, and say, 'I've got a higher duty'."

Oh - who would that courageous person be, Ray?

I guess you are, huh?

Well if I may say so myself, it takes an incredibly handsome man to identify you as the self-aggrandizing twit you are, Rayster.

12 posted on 03/14/2003 11:53:57 AM PST by wideawake (You'd better look out for me - I'm a member of the F.V.K.)
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To: kattracks
This is important. I think all of these same people spoke out when Clinton sent 400+ cruse missles. They also spoke loudly about Carter and North Korea and Panama Canal.
Does anyone have their names so we can give them credit for their former and current opinions?
13 posted on 03/14/2003 11:55:59 AM PST by paguch
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: kattracks
"He left the agency over a decade ago," said spokesman Mark Mansfield. "He's hardly in a position to comment knowledgeably on that subject."

I'll bet this guy is less informed than FReepers.

15 posted on 03/14/2003 11:59:37 AM PST by demlosers
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To: Wait4Truth
Some guy that retired a decade ago wants to challenge the Bush Administration?

France is....Russia is..

Guinea dissed us...

There is no bite.... behind the bark.

16 posted on 03/14/2003 11:59:44 AM PST by Dog ( Groundhog Day II -- the Sequel.....America held hostage by the UN.......where everyday is the same)
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To: kattracks
Help me understand this...Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld, Tommy Franks, et el...everyone is falsifying infomation or being duped into putting their credibility and integrity on the line to what, make Bush look good or promote a conspiracy???
17 posted on 03/14/2003 12:01:21 PM PST by mingwah
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To: kattracks
Kat,

Because I am a misguided optimist, I think this is a "good idea".

Any current CIA personel who takes this "small group composed mostly of retired CIA officers" up on their offer can be promptly arrested for disclosing information vital to our national security. The now ex-CIA personel would be prosecuted for crimes proportional to the secrecy level of the information disclosed to these unauthorized civilians.

The "retired CIA officers" will be identifying who they are as accomplices while removing duplicitous dead wood from the CIA. It is a win-win for the American people.

18 posted on 03/14/2003 12:03:33 PM PST by jriemer (We are a Republic not a Democracy)
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To: IncPen; aculeus; general_re; BlueLancer; Poohbah
Methinks these clowns are retired for a reason...

These clowns just proved they never should have been hired.

19 posted on 03/14/2003 12:03:36 PM PST by dighton
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To: kattracks
Anyone doing this and putting the lives of American soldiers or airmen in jeopardy should be immediately arrested and jailed for treason. And kept in solitary confinement at a US Military Base for the duration of the Iraq war.

20 posted on 03/14/2003 12:03:42 PM PST by UncleSamUSA (the land of the free and the home of the brave)
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