White House 'lied about Saddam threat'(Gregory Thielmann, ex-StateDept)

The Guardian ^ | 7/10/03 | Julian Borger

[Diddle E. Squat]

A former US intelligence official who served under the Bush administration in the build-up to the Iraq war accused the White House yesterday of lying about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein.

The claims came as the Bush administration was fighting to shore up its credibility among a series of anonymous government leaks over its distortion of US intelligence to manufacture a case against Saddam.

This was the first time an administration official has put his name to specific claims. The whistleblower, Gregory Thielmann, served as a director in the state department's bureau of intelligence until his retirement in September, and had access to the classified reports which formed the basis for the US case against Saddam, spelled out by President Bush and his aides.

Mr Thielmannn said yesterday: "I believe the Bush administration did not provide an accurate picture to the American people of the military threat posed by Iraq."

He conceded that part of the problem lay with US intelligence, but added: "Most of it lies with the way senior officials misused the information they were provided."

As Democrats demanded a congressional enquiry, the administration sharply changed tack. The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, told the Senate the US had not gone to war against Iraq because of fresh evidence of weapons of mass destruction but because Washington saw what evidence there was prior to 2001 "in a dramatic new light" after September 11.

At a press conference yesterday, Mr Thielmann said that, as of March 2003, when the US began military operations, "Iraq posed no imminent threat to either its neighbours or to the United States".

In one example, Mr Thielmann said a fierce debate inside the White House about the purpose of aluminium tubes bought by Baghdad had been "cloaked in ambiguity".

While some CIA analysts thought they could be used for gas centrifuges to enrich uranium, the best experts at the energy department disagreed. But the national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, said publicly that they could only be used for centrifuges.

Mr Thielmann also said there was no significant pattern of cooperation between Iraq and al-Qaida. He added: "This administration has had a faith-based intelligence attitude ... 'We know the answers - give us the intelligence to support those answers'."

Responding to claims of deliberate distortions, Mr Bush accused his critics of "trying to rewrite history" and insisted "there is no doubt in my mind" that Saddam "was a threat to world peace".

[Diddle E. Squat]

This guy is no Terrance Wilkinson, but seems to be just another Robin Cook. Whaddayawannabet he turns out to be a bitter careerist Democrat? Note all the mushy, slippery terms and innuendo that are the foundation of the leap to 'lying'. The guy seems to be taking advantage of the fog of shouted accusations and innuendo to build another false accusations from selective crumbs of disparate 'evidence'. A holdover strikes again.

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[NativeNewYorker]

Gregory Thielmann & Joseph Stewart, Jr., "A Demand-Side Perspective on the Importance of Representative Bureaucracy: AIDS, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexual Orientation," Public Administration Review 56 (Mar-Apr 1996): 168-73 - applies the concept of representative bureaucracy and examines the importance of government using service providers in the public health field with ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation make-up similar to the clients...

Link.

[nothingnew]

its distortion of US intelligence to manufacture a case against my friend Saddam.

FMCDH

[Yo-Yo]

Mr Thielmann said yesterday: "I believe the Bush administration did not provide an accurate picture to the American people of the military threat posed by Iraq."

Then let's tell Saddam he can come out of hiding, let him have his country back, we'll apologize and leave, and Mr. Thielmann can move to Baghdad.

I thought not.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Not a lot of entries on Gregory Thielmann on a google search http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=100&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=gregory+thielmann&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&safe=images

But since he wants to play the innuendo game, here's a few that may perhaps give insight into his background and motives:


http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:jVg9grM1mXcJ:www.grinnell.edu/offices/ce/news/102320021/jnl/++%22gregory+thielmann%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Son of Julius Rosenberg headlines list of three notable speakers at Grinnell College

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Dann Hayes, director of media relations, 641-269-4834.

October 23, 2002

Son of Julius Rosenberg headlines list of three notable speakers at Grinnell College

GRINNELL, Iowa - Robert Meeropol, the younger son of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, both executed by the U.S. government for "conspiring to steal the secret of the atomic bomb," is one of three prominent speakers who will be at Grinnell College the week of October 28 to 31.

Meeropol, who will speak on Monday, Oct. 28, will be followed on Wednesday, Oct. 30 by Grinnell College graduate A. Gregory Thielmann '72, recently retired director of strategic, proliferation, and military affairs office of the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, and Ira Sharkansky, professor, department of political science and public administration, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, who will speak on Thursday, October 31.

The three speaking engagements are sponsored by the Rosenfield Program in Public Affairs, International Relations, and Human Rights at Grinnell College. All three are open to the general public and are free of charge.

Schedule of speakers Monday, October 28 o Robert Meeropol, executive director of the Rosenberg Fund for Children, will speak on "Capital Conspiracy: The New Face of the Death Penalty after 9/11," 8 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge, Grinnell College.

For 30 years, Meeropol has been a progressive activist, author, and speaker. A lawyer, he left his practice in 1990 to found the Rosenberg Fund for Children, which provides for the education and emotional needs of both targeted activist youth and children in this country whose parents have been harassed, injured, jailed, lost jobs, or died in the course of their progressive activities.

Wednesday, October 30 o A. Gregory Thielmann '72, a retired career foreign service officer and special assistant to Ambassador Paul H. Nitze, U.S. arms control negotiator during the Reagan administration, will speak on "Providing for the Common Defense: What's Wrong with Strategic Flexibility," 8 p.m. in the Forum South Lounge, Grinnell College.

Thielmann, who graduated from Grinnell College in 1972, has also had assignments as officer-in-charge of German affairs for the Bureau of European and Canadian Affairs, political-military affairs officer in Moscow, and political affairs officer in Brazilia.

Thursday, October 31 o Ira Sharkansky, professor, department of political science and public administration, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will host an informal discussion at 4:15 p.m. on "The Politics of the Middle East," in the Forum Coffee House. At 8 p.m., he will discuss "Coping with Terror: Israelis and Palestinians," in the Forum South Lounge, Grinnell College.

Sharkansky, who was appointed to the Wolfson Chair in Public Administration at Hebrew University in 1993, is the author of numerous books including "Public Administration: Policy-Making In Government Agencies" (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1970, 1972, 1975, and 1978). The book has also been published in Spanish, French, Portuguese, Koren, and Chinese.

He has also published "Governing Jerusalem (Detroit: Wayne State University press 1996), and "Policy Making in Israel" (Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press 1997).



http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:orpnadUKM04J:www.apsanet.org/_lgbt/pa.cfm++%22gregory+thielmann%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

Gregory Thielmann & Joseph Stewart, Jr., "A Demand-Side Perspective on the Importance of Representative Bureaucracy: AIDS, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexual Orientation," Public Administration Review 56 (Mar-Apr 1996): 168-73
- applies the concept of representative bureaucracy and examines the importance of government using service providers in the public health field with ethnic, gender, and sexual orientation make-up similar to the clients.




http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:E2x-A4NPSXQJ:web.grinnell.edu/russian/pdf/News-Lectures1.PDF++%22gregory+thielmann%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

On Monday, October 9, Gregory Thielmann '72, First Secretary at the U.S. Embassy inMoscow, gave a talk entitled "Progress in Arms Control under Bush and Gorbachev?"

[EllaMinnow]

Here's an article he wrote this summer. He seems to have a huge grudge against Rumsfeld, and comes across (to me) as an appeaser and an apologist.

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2003_07-08/thielmann_julaug03.asp

[Jewels1091]

This stupid sotry is gaining legs....President Bush HAS to getin front of it when he gets back!!! He has to have a press conference or something to stop this now!!!!!

[eyespysomething]

You forgot to highlite his "I believe..."'s.

Washington saw what evidence there was prior to 2001 "in a dramatic new light" after September 11.

I wish they would have just said this at the beginning. Oh wait, that's right, they did. But the liberals/Dems were saying "NO connection NO connection NO connection blah blah blah". Yeah, right, except they are both terrorists sponsering organizations.

Why do you think Bush is in Africa? To give out our money to fight aids? Or to Grid Africa with air bases, possibly for the War on Terror?

[mhking]

What, yet another made up "inside source" like Terence Wilkenson?

The liberal press has gotten their collective hands caught in the cookie jar, and are doing their damnedest to tell the lie enough times to make the sheep among the masses believe it.

Anyone wanna take bets as to how long it'll be before "Doonsbury" and "The Boondocks" run with this tripe?

[Williams]

How is an ex employee a "whistle blower?" That usually implies
you are still there and risking your position. I know the answer, but are people so naive that they don't know within the megalithic State and Defense departments, you are always going to get some people who crawl out of the woodwork to complain the higher ups disregarded their valuable advice, etc? Until this article, I certainly never heard of this guy. I heard two guys named Powell and Rumsfeld were calling the shots.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Hmmmm, looks like this Gregory Thielmann has been at this quite the while, someone already tracking on the web how many times he's appeared in the news lately:

http://216.239.37.104/search?q=cache:AufoTNVjeoEJ:www.shockingelk.com/text/goo_thielmann/++%22greg+thielmann%22&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

A search under Greg Thielmann yields 2,100 results:

http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&as_qdr=all&q=+%22greg+thielmann%22&btnG=Google+Search

[hchutch]

Agreed. Then there are the folks on the right who have their grudge agains the "neocons" as well.

It's really getting to be a mess.

[FourtySeven]

What I want to know is, how can anyone take the Guardian seriously after their most recent journalistic fiasco, ala Deputy Scty of Defense Wolfowitz and his "supposed admission" that the war in Iraq was really all about oil?

Good Lord! These liberals will latch onto ANYTHING, no matter how tarnished the source so long as it follows in step with their agenda.

All pretenses and requirements of honesty integrity ASIDE of course!

[KC_Conspirator]

This ex-state department employee sounds like piece of liberal scum. Saddam never knew he had so many supporters in the USA!

[Iowa Granny]

Anyone who graduates from Grinnel College is automatically suspect to me. There's noting but Libs, Libs, Libs there. Conservatives hold their meetings in a phone booth there.

[EllaMinnow]

I think that's his problem. Rumsfeld and Powell are in charge, and he's pining for the days of Mad Maddie Albright.

[A Vast RightWing Conspirator]

seems to be just another Robin Cook. Whaddayawannabet he turns out to be a bitter careerist Democrat?

How could he be a careerist? His career is over. He retired already.

[Diddle E. Squat]

See post #6

Wednesday, October 30 o A. Gregory Thielmann '72, a retired career foreign service officer...

[TheDon]

I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, that a retired, low level, State Department official would make such accusations against President Bush!

(How much did he get?)