Insider fires a broadside at Rumsfeld's office

[NNN0LHI]

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EH07Ak01.html

WASHINGTON - On most days, the Pentagon's "Early Bird", a daily compilation of news articles on defense-related issues mostly from the US and British press, does not shy from reprinting hard-hitting stories and columns critical of the United States Defense Department's top leadership.

But few could help notice last week that the "Bird" omitted an opinion piece distributed by the Knight-Ridder news agency by a senior Pentagon Middle East specialist, Air Force Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski, who worked in the office of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith until her retirement in April.

"What I saw was aberrant, pervasive and contrary to good order and discipline," Kwiatkowski wrote. "If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of 'intelligence' found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post-Saddam occupation has been distinguished by confusion and false steps, one need look no further than the process inside the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD)."

Kwiatkowski went on to charge that the operations she witnessed during her tenure in Feith's office, and particularly those of an ad hoc group known as the Office of Special Plans (OSP), constituted "a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-option through deceit of a large segment of the Congress".

Kwiatkowski's charges, which tend to confirm reports and impressions offered to the press by retired officers from other intelligence agencies and their still-active but anonymous former colleagues, are likely to make her a prime witness when Congress reconvenes in September for hearings on the manipulation of intelligence to justify war against Iraq.

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[ewagner]

1. Wasn't this posted yesterday?

didn't have the Colonel's name in yesterday's post.

[gristy]

5. This is from Aug 3rd Houston Chronicle

Was posted a couple days ago. But it is good enough for a reprise IMO.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/outlook/2023830

[0007]

7. It should be posted every day for the next month

What's your problem with a double post, 'eh?

[Zech Marquis]

2. wow, right between Rummy's eyes!

and you know there are scores of people who share her opinions..to actualy name the OSP and call them out :wow: ooohh this is gonna be good :evilgrin:

[kysrsoze]

13. Ummm, is Congress really going to look into any of this?

I haven't heard of any approved investigation into the Iraq war lies.

[searchingforlight]

3. If she is smart, she will lock her doors.

[qanda]

6. And not go for any long walks

with heart monitor pads and razors.:tinfoilhat:

[northzax]

8. or small private aircraft

those havea depressing tendency to fail.

[havocmom]

4. Office of Special Plans (OSP) should...

have named changed to Outragous Office of Planning Shit. The acronym would be so much more accurate.

[enough]

9. kick

.

[Judi Lynn]

10. Great news!

Hope she will remain safe. It's a heroic act to risk it all in getting the truth out.

Hope this catches on, and the protective blanket of silence they have relied upon will be ripped away.

Hope no one backs out during the hearings.

[Kool Kitty]

11. Kick.

:kick:

[pfitz59]

12. Military PROFESSIONALS don't like amateurs......

gumming up the works! Rummie and his band of brigands has totally screwed the works! He had to pull a general off the Retired list as next Army COS because no active-duty General would shine his knob! Other news today shows the attacks in Iraq have returned with a vengence! I bet lots of military will retire this year (unless they're 'stop-lossed'). (Stop-loss means no retirements or resignations allowed. Happening in critcal billets.) Unfortunately, as more straight-up folk leave the service what's left are the snake-handling Fundies and boot-licking opportunists, neither of which bode well for our future peace and prosperity!

[ILeft]

14. ...executive order allowing appointment of "civilian" generals?

With the shortage of real military people who buy into the sick fantasyland of the chickenhawks in the Bush Regime, I believe we could see an executive order allowing civilians to be appointed as military officers.

Is this possible? After all, this is a national emergency...

General Wolfowitz? General Limbaugh?

[Karenina]

15. I should certainly hope not

And this disgusting parade of *dimwit CHICKENHAWKS (who don't have the sense that G_d gave a donkey) are wreaking reeking havoc worldwide and need to be called to account. They have NO IDEA what they're doing and what they ARE doing is almost beyond comprehension. Ya know, this is all so far beyond absurd. "Straight-up" military folk, PLEASE, for all our sakes, SPEAK UP. Our collective survival depends on it.

WOWEE, GO LOOKEE ALL WHAT SHE SAID!!! :think:

<snip>

Saddam is not yet sitting before a war crimes tribunal. Nor have the key decision-makers in the Pentagon been forced to account for the odd set of circumstances that placed us as a long-term occupying force in the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan. Neither may ever be required to answer their accusers, thanks to this administration's military as well as publicity machine, and the disgraceful political compromises already made by most of the Congress. Ironically, only Saddam Hussein, buried under tons of rubble or in hiding, has a good excuse.

Kwiatkowski is a recently retired Air Force lieutenant colonel who spent most of her final three years of military service in the Office of the Secretary of Defense's Under Secretariat for Policy.