Wash Times: U.S. rushed post-Saddam planning

[huckleberry]

I know - the Washington Times, but check out the date that bush approved the war plans and who was being kept informed!

By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A secret report for the Joint Chiefs of Staff lays the blame for setbacks in Iraq on a flawed and rushed war-planning process that "limited the focus" for preparing for post-Saddam Hussein operations.

snip

The report is titled "Operation Iraqi Freedom Strategic Lessons Learned" and is stamped "secret." A copy was obtained by The Washington Times.

snip

Senior U.S. officials, including Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, conceded in recent weeks that the Bush administration failed to predict the guerrilla war against American troops in Iraq. Saddam loyalists and foreign fighters have killed more than 60 soldiers since May 1, mostly with roadside bombs and rocket-propelled grenades.

snip

The report also provides a classified timeline of events from September 11 leading to war. It says that on Aug. 29, 2002, Mr. Bush "approves Iraq goals, objectives and strategy."

snip

The timeline also showed that the Bush administration stayed in close contact with Israel about its plans. In mid-February, "key Israeli leaders" received a briefing on the war plan. Shortly thereafter, CentCom began sharing information in Tel Aviv via U.S. European Command, whose area of responsibility includes the Jewish state.

more at
http://washingtontimes.com/national/20030903-120317-9393r.htm

[aquart]

1. "Predict the guerrilla war"? Did you have to be psychic?

I flat out said there would be a guerrilla war and all I used was history and common sense.

Am I a high-paid cabinet member? Am I a leader of industry? Have I spent ten seconds in the State Department or even traveled to the Mid East?

NO!

And yet, I knew. Not psychic either.

If I knew......what the bloody hell is the matter with those idiots in Washington?

[fizzana]

4. The fact that you knew, immediately disqualifies you for any of

the above positions.

[grasswire]

2. and this

The report also provides a classified timeline of events from September 11 leading to war. It says that on Aug. 29, 2002, Mr. Bush "approves Iraq goals, objectives and strategy."
Three months earlier, the Pentagon began a series of war exercises called "Prominent Hammer" to judge whether the force could win in Iraq and still maintain a deterrent in other theaters, such as South Korea.

1. Is that September 11 2001?

2. War games for Iraq began in May or June 2002.

Fascinating.

[legin]

3. We rather need a copy of this report

The timeline sounds very interesting.

[hang a left]

8. not only is the timing interesting

but the content of the article is as well. The Wash Times, WTH. Are the powers that be getting ready to take down whistle?

[NickDanger]

9. Why this content, why now?

For whom would blame for these allegations fall, if true?

[bagnana]

5. off subject re: WA Times

I don't understand how the WA Times' connection to Rev. Moon is just ignored by all of the freepers who consistently cite to it. The paper is owned by an asian religious cult leader who thinks he is a divine being.

[9215]

6. Fuck th Washington Times, now and forever

This Moonie/Bush rag is trying to make it look like they are credible through this "incredible" conspiracy shit that would have been or already is in mainstream press. The goal of the Moonie Times--I wish it would change its name to that title--is to become accepted by mainstream America. They are in high Psy-ops mode. Nothing they print gets at the heart of Bushista power, it is all just rehashed shit!

Here is something I have from a few years ago on this fascisti/narco/theocrat


Rev. Moon Connection to Klaus Barbie/Nazi's


This is excerpted from Robert Parry's book Lost History (pages 200-203):

"Moon's Korea-based church got its first boost as an international organization when Kim Jong-Pil, the founder of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, brokered a relationship between Moon and one of Japan's leading rightist financiers, Ryoichi Sasakawa. Sasakawa had been jailed after WWII as a war criminial, but was freed, along with Yoshio Kodama , by U.S. military intelligence officials eager to enlist their help in combatting leftist political forces in Japan.......

In the early 1960's, Kim Jong-Pil's intelligence contacts with these right-wing leaders proved invaluable to Moon, who had made only a few converts in Japan. After Kim Jong-Pil opened the door to Kodama and Sasakawa in late 1962, 50 leaders of an ultra-nationalist Japanese Buddhist sect converted en mase to the Unification Church, giving it a strong base in Japan that remains to this day.....

Through WACL and other political relatioships, Moon built bridges to right-wing forces in South America during the 1970's. As DEA agent Michael Levine noted in his book Deep Cover, the DEA arrested Jose Robeto Gasser in May 1980 for allegedly smuggling 854 pounds of cocaine base. To Levine's amazement, Gasser, the son of a Bolivian WACL leader, 'was almost immediately released' for what Levine suspected were geopolitical reasons. Gasser's father was a leading figure in the coup to overthtrow Bolivia's left-of-center government. The putsch on July 17, 1980, became known as the Cocaine Coup because it gave the drug lords free rein of the country and allowed protected shipments of coca base in Columbia.

Among the well-wishers arriving in La Paz to congratulate the new government was Moon's top lieutenant, Bo Hi Pak. The Moon organization was so proud of its new contacts that it published a photo of Pak meeting with Gen. Luis Garcia Meza, the new ruler. After the visit to the mountainous capital of Bolivia, Pak declared: " I have erected a throne for Father Moon in the world's highest city."

According to later Bolivian government and news paper reports, a Moon representative invested about $4 million in preparations for the coup. CAUSA, one of Moon's anti-communist organizations listed as members nearly all the leading Bolivian coup-makers.

Shortly after the putsch, the neo-fascist shock troops recruited by fugitive Nazi Klaus Barbie , moved into the business of transporting cocaine for the drug lords. "The paramilitary units, conceived by Barbie as a new type of SS, sold themselves to the cocaine barons," wrote German investigative reporter Kai Hermann. "The attraction of fast money in the cocaine trade was stronger than the idea of a national socialist revolution in Latin America." (For details, see an English translation of Hermann's work published in Covert Action Information Bulletin, Winter 1986)......

Moon's organization continued to flaunt ints new-found influence in Bolivia. On may 31, 1981 Moon representatives sponsored a CAUSA rreception at the Sheraton Hotel's Hall of Freedom in La Paz. Bo Hi Pak and Gen. Garcia Meza led a prayer for President Reagan's recovery from an assasination attempt......

During the 1980's, Moon's organization demonstrated unprecedented financial strength. In 1982, Moon launched The Washington Times a right wing daily that cost Moon an estimated $100million/year in losses. In 1983 Moon established a financial base in Uraguay with the purchase of the country's third largest bank, the the Banco de Credito, which soon became the center of allegations about money laundering. (For details, see iF Magazine, Sept.-Oct. 1998.

Moon's CAUSA also continued to organize pro-contra rallies in the United States and coordinated contra activities with the right-wing forces in Honduras and other Central American countries. Through the 1980's, Moon's Washington Times aggressively defended the contra operations raised money for the contras after Congress cut off funding. In 1984, the Times also published the first reports about Sandinista drug suspicions, a story that helped the contra cause in Congress while killing a major DEA investigation of the Medellin carte."

It should be noted that when George Bush became drug czar during the Reagan Administration, hard drug importation increased 1000%. The Washington Times has been cited repeatedly on this message board spewing a steady stream of anti-Clinton and Gore propoganda, until I started writing about its connections to Bush and ownership by Moon. Now many of the people using this source simply do not cite it anymore. Those people discussing the connection between Bush-Moon and the Nazi's have been labeled 'conspiracy nuts'. One may begin to wonder just who these labelers are working for.

If you want Dubya for president where do you think his interests will be? How did he raise so much money? Will the drug problem get better, or worse? Will organizations like Moon's Unification Church grow stronger or weaker? What about Naziism?

And then we have Bush intimate connection to Moon's Church and the nether world from whence WWII Nazis came upon the scene. It was the Butcher of Lyon Klaus Barbie who, with the help of Allen Dulles found his way on the ratline to Bolivia.....

[shockingelk]

7. We didn't find WMD cause we didn't plant to well enough

Is that not at the base, what this is saying?

"WMD elimination/exploitation on a large scale was a new mission area. Division of responsibility for planning and execution was not clear. As a result planning occurred on an ad hoc basis and late in the process. Additionally, there were insufficient assets available to accomplish the mission. Existing assets were tasked to perform multiple, competing missions."

[teryang]

10. Nazi post war planning gets poor review

Lesson learned: don't fabricate reasons to pre-emptively and illegally invade other countries.

[SideshowScott]

11. Whoh, Even the Moonie Times is getting into the act

Even though i dont or ever will trust the Moonie times. Even they are haveing a bit of Bush Bashing..Maby Rev Moon is striking back for favors ingored perhaps..But who cares when they attack each other it makes for fun times for us..
Really would YOU want to work for a job where your boss is the brianwashing, family kidnapin Rev Sung Youn Moon?? It really says alot about the " reporters and Columnists " that work for him..It really boggles my mind how this is the GOP-Rightwing-Freeper paper of choice besides the ultra-trashy NY Post..
But anyhoo If the washington times publishes something critical of bush it may be A) The end times for Bush or B) the monthy rightwing rags trying to act like a real paper for a day just to shut us up..Drudge does it and ive seen fox news do it for a day..Then its back to Bush Butt kissin, Democrat bashin, clinton zipper obsessin, Big dog Blamin, GOP crime ignorein selfs..Like most of what passes for the press nowadays..
Really who would have thought that a CULT leader would won a newpaper read by moslty " Moral" rightwingers..Go figure..Then agian id never though a aussie smut peddler would own a news channel eather

[lanlady]

12. preparing the ground for a purge?

This report, which was stamped "secret," must have been leaked for a good, Washington-type reason, meaning someone in the Pentagon wants a few heads to roll.

Overall, the summary of the report tends toward pinning the blame at the dep sec level (Wolfie et al.) At least, that's my reading of it. The names Bush and Cheney are studiously avoided, and Rummie's name comes up in a neutral context.

[gulliver]

13. Rushed it?

Wolfowitz and Cheney were dreaming about and drooling over Iraq since the first Bush administration.

The Bushies didn't "rush it." This debacle is the product of the best "thinking" these a**holes have to offer. They've been described as grown-ups. Wolfowitz has been called an intellectual. It was all crap.

These Bushies are a bunch of pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-patriotic nobodies. Take away their ideology, and they don't have two thoughts to rub together.

[dembones]

14. Careerists striking back

The lifers in the CIA and the Pentagon have been abused by the White House. Basically, Rummy knows best, and everybody else can piss off. This attitude is central to everything that is going on. It is like Nixon and Kissinger throwing everybody out of the loop. Exactly the same as a matter of fact. The career people at State, CIA, and the Pentagon are beginning to strike back. This is where we will begin to begin seeing the dirt on * and his cronies.

If things start going really sour, watch out for Pentagon Papers II where all the objections to Pax Neo-cona are revealed.

[starroute]

15. Splits in the administration

With Iraq going so badly, they're all trying to cover their asses and are also thrashing around looking for a strategy that won't leave things in even worse shape six months from now. The fabled unity of this administration may well be a thing of the past.

Today's Talking Points Memo says, "The word I keep hearing is that we can expect increasingly open conflict between Don Rumsfeld and the branch of neoconservatives who really take democratic imperialism seriously. Actually, given the players involved, that probably means increasingly public attacks on Don Rumsfeld coming from neoconservatives."

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/sept0301.html#090303119am

[MoonAndSun]

16. is Rowan Scarborough any relation to Joe Scarborough?

anyway, the rightwingers smell blood in the water and will eat their own just to make money for their leaders.