Thursday, August 21, 2008

Conyers Questions Iraq 'Forgery'

By Jason Leopold
August 21, 2008

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers has asked current and former White House aides and ex-CIA officials to respond to questions about an alleged scheme to create a bogus letter in late 2003 linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda.

Read on.
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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow!

CIA agent Richer's "retraction" is not much of a retraction at all. It actually reconfirms the core allegation of Suskind's claims in this scandal: yes, the CIA was shown forged documents, in hopes the agency could be enlisted in concocting a bogus Saddam-Al Quaeda connection to justify the Bush White House's Iraq invasion decision.

Richer's follow up contention - that the ostensible purpose of ultimately circulating the forgery was to somehow tamp down the Iraqi insurgency rather than influence US public opinion - strikes me as highly implausible, a disingenuous distinction without a difference.

Better still, even though ex-agent Giraldi is writing for a highly suspect right wing rag, his comments actually also reinforce the essential truth of Suskind's scoop.

According to Giraldi, Cheney's office and Douglas Feith are the source of the forgery (not those diligent, patriotic fellows laboring away at the CIA). How bizarre, that Giraldi believes the CIA is forbidden by law to engage in psy-ops to influence public opinion in the United States, but no similar legal prohibition extends to dirty tricks authored or circulated about by the Pentagon for purposes of misleading the American public.

Since when did the Navy SEALS have need for a forgery division to carry out their quasi-clandestine military missions?

If Doug Feith in fact set up such a forgery shop in an effort to fool both the CIA and the public, then that sounds like a perfectly indictable crime to me in and of itself. It certainly is something sufficient to merit a full Congressional investigation by Mr. Conyers' committee.

Kudos to Mr. Suskind for saving his interview tapes.

Bill from Saginaw

Thu Aug 21, 04:44:00 PM 2008

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