Records Could Shed Light on W.H. Iraq Group (Walter Pincus: Senate Report Did Not Review WHIG)

[Hissyspit]

Source: Washington Post

Records Could Shed Light on Iraq Group

By Walter Pincus
Monday, June 9, 2008; Page A15

There is an important line in last week's Senate intelligence committee report on the Bush administration's prewar exaggerations of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein. It says that the panel did not review "less formal communications between intelligence agencies and other parts of the Executive Branch." More important, there was no effort to obtain White House records or interview President Bush, Vice President Cheney or other administration officials whose speeches were analyzed because, the report says, such steps were considered beyond the scope of the report.

One obvious target for such an expanded inquiry would have been the records of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), a group set up in August 2002 by then-White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. The group met weekly in the Situation Room. Among the regular participants (many have since left or changed jobs) were Karl Rove, the president's senior political adviser; communications strategists Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin and James R. Wilkinson; legislative liaison Nicholas E. Calio; and policy aides led by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and her deputy, Stephen J. Hadley, as well as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff.

As former White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote in his recently released book, "What Happened," the Iraq Group "had been set up in the summer of 2002 to coordinate the marketing of the war to the public." "The script had been finalized with great care over the summer," McClellan wrote, for a "campaign to convince Americans that war with Iraq was inevitable and necessary." In an interview with the New York Times published Sept. 6, 2002, Card did not mention the group, but he hinted at its mission. "From a marketing point of view, you don't introduce new products in August," he said. Two days later, WHIG's product placement was on display. It began with a front-page story in the Times describing Iraq's clandestine purchase of aluminum tubes that, the story said, could be used to produce weapons-grade uranium. The story said that information came from "senior administration officials."

- snip -

WHIG's records would shed much light on whether, as Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), chairman of the intelligence panel, put it: "In making the case for war, the administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when it was unsubstantiated, contradicted or even nonexistent."

Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/08/AR2008060801819.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. This is certainly grounds for an impeachment investigation.

[digidigido]

2. Everything they Did is grounds for an impeachment investigation

[klyon]

21. the list is getting pretty long

these guys are criminals and should be held accountable for there many and horrific crimes
and they just laugh

[bjobotts]

34. From the beginning they knew if they did one or two things bad we'd focus on those

[bjobotts]

35. So they had a dumptruck full of corrupt chaos dumped on the public from all sides

[bjobotts]

36. Incompetent officials in every agency at every level to disrupt and distort and corrupt

[bjobotts]

37. Distracting us from their real intentions, investigations in every direction

[bjobotts]

38. They kept the chaos coming spreading the opposition thin.

[bjobotts]

39. We'll be 50yrs getting out all the roaches. Every Regency U grad etc.

[bjobotts]

40. It all begins and ends with impeachment & war crimes tribunal.

[acmavm]

5. One of many.

[Tim4319]

9. How about jail time also, with a hefty fine?

[chill_wind]

3. Kick and rec n/t

[gademocrat7]

4. K & R

[mod mom]

6. Could someone explain to me WHY the Senate Intel Committee didn't look into this?

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

8. Because of Pat Roberts...

... the GOP chairman and co-chairman with Rockefeller during the Democratic Party majority, did everything he could to block the Senate Intelligence Committee from looking in to things. Sen Rockefeller kept records of his own so as not to have to worry about any "office fires" destroying the records of Pat Roberts and GOP stonewalling on getting the facts. I recall this being pointed out a few years ago, as I did follow it closely for awhile.

[mod mom]

11. Thanks for the explanation.

:hi:

[davidswanson]

7. WHIG

http://afterdowningstreet.org/whig

[Botany]

10. So far we have:

bush exploring and or talking about a war w/ Iraq prior to him being sworn in.
Houston TX paper .... Bob Woodward's book

Planning involving Iraq prior to 9/11 .... Dick Cheney's energy task force

The Linking of Iraq to 9/11 by semantics, errors of omission, and outright lies.

The White House Iraq Group and the office of Special Plans whose job it was
to "cherry pick data" in order to make a case for an Iraqi war.


Now can we impeach these bastards for lying to start an unneeded war as they let
those behind 9/11 get away?

[Amonester]

12. YES WE CAN (but will we?)

They let those behind 9/11 get away because, some of them R their business partners:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3338212

~snip~
The Saudi businessman was also named in a 2002 French parliamentary report as having links to informal money transfer networks called hawala, known to be used by traders and terrorists, including Al Qaeda.

Interestingly (sic-k), Pharaon was also an investor in President George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=3338212

Why would master crooks like those in the WHIQ want to "punish" their bidless partners??

But Pelosi & Reid may be very, VERY afraid of "what" the "dark actors" of the BFEE might "do" to them (or relatives)?

[ozymandius]

14. Lack of impeachment does not neccesarily mean they get away with murder.

The last thing the good guys want is for these people, while in office, to pardon each other. It could work this way: Cheney is the focus of a criminal probe and is pardoned by Bush. Bush is the focus of a criminal probe and is removed from office. Cheney, once sworn in, pardons him. Accessories to the crime would also reap the benefit of a pardon as Father Bush did for Caspar Weinberger during the Iran-Contra probe. So what else can be done under such frustrating circumstances?

To me, it sounds like the groundwork is being prepared for a criminal probe after Bush, Cheney and all their accomplices leave office. That makes the most sense to me for this chatter - but doesn't mean that I will be holding my breath.

[Amonester]

15. one grand they'll fly away and party with ...

kenny-boy

[madamesilverspurs]

16. But

can they be barred from leaving the country to evade possible prosecution?

[ozymandius]

19. short of an indictment - don't know

If one is indicted and deemed a flight risk then the person is remanded to jail. Short of that I don't know what would or could be done with accused criminals on this scale.

[AntiFascist]

30. Something needs to be done before they attack Iran...

otherwise we go through the whole cycle again, and who knows if the General Election could get suspended.

[Norrin Radd]

13. kr

[disndat]

17. According to Nancy Pelosi

committing heinous and treasonous crimes, proven and documented, by high level government officials, are not grounds for impeachment.

[Supersedeas]

18. beyond the scope of the report??

[speedoo]

20. Yeah, WTF??!!

Rockefeller should have been replaced by someone like Dick Durbin.

Fucking fiasco.

[Blaze Diem]

22. k&r and Bookmarking..certain I'll be referencing this post in the future.

Great post. Who's behind the inception of the Iraq War Group?
Senior Bush & cronies?
The selection of George W was just part of a plan, long in the making, hardly was it the beginning.

Who are the old players in this horrific mess to overthrow the US Govt for power and monetary gain?
Bush senior? Cheney? The core is probably a very small but powerful circle.

Be interesting to know where this plot originated.


tks

[defendandprotect]

25. As far as a time line, you certainly have to go back to ...

their most open act of political violence on our soil --- the coup on JFK.*
And all of the political assassinations/violence after that ---

Beyond that, you have to go back to the founding days --- compromises with the wealthy ---
distribution of land, etal -- control over natural resources -- and they would have naturally
always insured that the wealthiest were moved into positions of power --- and notably hierarchies.

Democracy is and always was a threat to the elite/the most violent among us ---
but they knew they had time . . .

The coup on JFK, of course, could not have been done without having a president in control of the
aftermath --- LBJ. So we're at least back that far. Nixon, of course. Ford. Bush, Sr. as
a major mover of political coups -- October Surprise another, of course.

And they insured that when Jimmy Carter became president he was under constant attack and under
heavy r-w propagands 24/7 --

Meanwhile, we've had right wing infiltration of the Democratic Party by the DLC --- and Gore and Clinton were founding members --- HRC is part of DLC leadership. It is the "corporate-sponsored"
wing of the Democratic Party and its goal is to move the party to the right.




*Keep in mind also that a plot on FDR by the elites was discovered --- and though investigated
by the USHR was kept rather quiet as to the names -- but most of the notables there -- DuPont, etc.

[NeoConsSuck]

23. When is the NY Times

going to come clean and own up to their part in pushing for a war with Iraq?

The NY Times has just as much Iraqi blood on it's hands as the bush administration.

[defendandprotect]

28. Yes, at this point, some act as though "Judith Miller-gate" happened to the NYT . . .

whereas, they fostered it -- and presumably still under MOCKINGBIRD . ..
one of many NYT-"gates" like the reinvestigation of "Whitewater-gate" run from their pages.

And how about ExxonMobil-gate where the oil industry has had an Op-Ed Soap Box in their alliance
with the NY Times whereby they have run anti-Global Warming propaganda at one time almost on a daily basis!

Though identified as "Op-Ads" . . . they could not be replied to in all this time in Letters to the Editor, for instance, because it was "advertising."

Just another unholy alliance between the NYT and the Establishment of which they are part ---

[NeoConsSuck]

31. Here's a good read..

and the Iraq group is also mentioned. The article is from October 2005. And BTW, I trust this website a hell of a lot more than I trust the NY Times.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/oct2005/mill-o18.shtml

[Tempest]

24. The administration kept CIA conclusions from Congress

The report given to Congress before the war did not include the conclusions from the CIA that the so-called intelligence did not match reality.

[defendandprotect]

29. Ahhh. . . the "fix" ---

[NBachers]

26. What's Wrong Here?

They spent the entire Clinton presidency in investigations, harassment, and persecution. They called people in and spent the day talking about Clinton's goddam penis, for Christ's sake. But they don't think this reaches quite the scale of that?

There's one way to stop this and purge our government of these reactionary fascists: vote them out of power in November, then go to war against them with investigations, prosecutions, and long sentences. We need to demand it and settle for no foot-dragging or excuses.

They keep pushing the "Old past history" defense. I'm sure every person in prison would like to consider their crimes "old past history." It's not "old history." It's still happening today. And it's effects will reverberate long past our own individual deaths.

We need to demand this without stop until it happens. A good starting point would be with John Edwards as AG.

[Patsy Stone]

27. Hidden on Page A15...

Isn't one of the requirements of propaganda to mislead? I think it is, Scotty.

McClellan wrote that WHIG was not used to "deliberately mislead the public" but that the "more fundamental problem was the way advisers decided to pursue a political propaganda campaign to sell the war to the American people."

[countryjake]

32. K&R!

[Imagevision]

33. geeeezusss! this makes Watergate look like a cartoon...

[countryjake]

41. Kick!