Inappropriate

A new report from the Inspector General at the Pentagon is trying hard to split the baby, calling the Office of Special Plans, Douglas Feith's intelligence shop run out of the Defense Department, inappropriate but not illegal. This is mainly so news headlines can say "Prewar intelligence not illegal". Me, I agree with BooMan.

Well, no shit. It's not illegal to be fucking crazy, but it sure is inappropriate to hire crazy people to run the most powerful killing machine in the history of mankind. Thanks a lot for that clarification, Inspector General.

As for the legality of disseminating intelligence reports without dissenting views attached, that can get kind of tricky. Obviously it goes against all standard practice in the area of intelligence. It's a bad idea and should never, ever be done. And if it is done, no one should take the product seriously and they should go to the press and reveal that crazed bloodthirsty bastards have taken over a segment of the government and are going to get upwards of a million innocent people killed if someone doesn't stop them.

What the Office of Special Plans did, let's say, OUGHT to be illegal. Feith ran an off-the-books intelligence operation that was designed to collect particular bits of intelligence supporting the case for war. In other words, the conclusions were made first, then the intelligence was found to support it. In the process, Feith and his team twisted the facts to show that Iraq and Saddam were in league with Al Qaeda, which was false; allowed for no dissenting viewpoints on that assessment, though the consensus of the intelligence community was the opposite; and sent that assessment to the White House, where it was used to make the case for war.

What we have is an absolute hijacking of the intelligence process, a palace coup where ideologues reach foregone conclusions and do whatever it takes to implement their nefarious schemes. And this report can say all it wants, but at least one member of Congress thinks it is illegal:

“The IG has concluded that this office was engaged in intelligence activities. The Senate Intelligence Committee was never informed of these activities. Whether these actions were authorized or not, it appears that they were not in compliance with the law.

“In the coming days, I will carefully review all aspects of the report and will consult with Vice Chairman Bond to determine whether any additional action by the Senate Intelligence Committee is warranted."

Whether or not this violates the National Security Act of 1947 hangs on whether this was an intelligence assessment or simply criticism of the intelligence of the time. The report clearly calls it an assessment. Doug Feith should be in jail.

The summary judgments of this report should be available soon. And there's a hearing going on about this very issue in the Senate Armed Services Committee today. But it's extremely important that this is front-page news. Especially now, when we're seeing the same kind of intelligence-cooking with regard to Iran, and the same kind of uncritical thinking from the media.

SEVILLE, Spain - Serial numbers and markings on explosives used in Iraq provide “pretty good” evidence that Iran is providing either weapons or technology for militants there, Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserted Friday.

Ooooh. Seems pretty scary. Sounds factual. Authoritative, even. And the second paragraph…

Offering some of the first public details of evidence the military has collected, Gates said, “I think there’s some serial numbers, there may be some markings on some of the projectile fragments that we found,” that point to Iran.

Supposition continues to be stated as fact by the Administration, and reported as fact in the press. That's more than inappropriate. It's criminal.