from http://macsmind.blogspot.com/
"Seymour Hersh: "Who lied to whom?" 03/31/2003
"The chance for American intelligence to challenge the documents came as the Administration debated whether to pass them on to ElBaradei...A former intelligence officer told me that some questions about the authenticity of the Niger documents were raised inside the government by analysts at the Department of Energy and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research. However, these warnings were not heeded."
" 'Somebody deliberately let something false get in there,' the former high-level intelligence official added. 'It could not have gotten into the system without the agency being involved. Therefore it was an internal intention. Someone set someone up.'
The question is - "Who is that somebody?"
He started off the segment of his speech aimed at the Department of State with this excellent line:
"This status quo of despotism and anger cannot be ignored or appeased, kept in a box or bought off."
He is telling the Brent Scowcrofts and Colin Powells of the world that the stabilizing, Real politick ideas they learned from Henry Kissinger and others who postulated similar old style machinations of pre 1950s Europe are not going to be acceptable to Americans any more. I say hallelujah. That one line describes the principles free actions of the US State Department for the last 60 years. It is about time we stopped giving our enemies the ammunition to tear the USA down that the State Department has provided for so long with their many missteps, bad decisions and advice.
"The advance of hope in the Middle East requires new thinking in the region." Continued Bush with his admonition. Darn right. This is one of the reasons that Colin Powell leaving the State Dept. is 4 years late.
Bush then said, "By now it should be clear that authoritarian rule is not the wave of the future, it is the last gasp of a discredited past." Are you listening, gentlemen? Condi Rice should be given the free hand to whip her charge into shape to fall in line with Bush's more principled foreign policy line of thinking.
And if the State boys didn't get it by that point in the speech, Bush clarified it with, "The advance of hope in the Middle East also requires new thinking in the capitals of great democracies, including Washington, D.C."
Were you listening, State Department? Bush may as well have said, "Can you hear me now?" New thinking, boys. That means throw out the dog-eared playbook written by the moribund denizens of the Truman and Eisenhower State Departments and get with the new program.
Still not clear, Foggy Bottom? Well then, carefully listen to this from the President's address: "By now it should be clear that decades of excusing and accommodating tyranny in the pursuit of stability have only led to injustice and instability and tragedy."
And Bush nailed it with these last three segments:
"It should be clear that the advance of democracy leads to peace because governments that respect the rights of their people also respect the rights of their neighbors.
“It should be clear that the best antidote to radicalism and terror is the tolerance and hope kindled in free societies.
And our duty is now clear: For the sake of our long-term security, all free nations must stand with the forces of democracy and justice that have begun to transform the Middle East."
Appeasement and accepting the rule of dictators in other countries to sponsor hoped for "stability" is the game of last century. No longer will America avert its eyes as despots murder, imprison and abuse their own peoples so that our nation's business interests can continue without molestation. We will do as we always SHOULD have done. Support democracy and freedom throughout the world. After all, that is the only avenue to REAL stability anyway.
Let us hope that Bush uses one of the largest brooms ever wielded in Washington to sweep Foggy Bottom clear of the dregs of old European foreign policy lovers and the failed policies, both morally and in outcome, of the last 60 years.
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Baring one of Washington's worst-kept secret, Secretary of State Colin Powell's deputy said he and Powell sometimes went public with their dissenting views to try to influence Bush administration policy.
Richard Armitage, who leaves along with Powell at the end of President Bush's first term, described the process as using the "bully pulpit.''
"Differences of opinion are something you as a citizen and I as a citizen should value in your government,'' Armitage said in an interview with National Public Radio's "Morning Edition'' on Thursday. "You really want it.''
Powell and Armitage, whose friendship was forged decades ago, share foreign policy views that are distinctly more moderate than those of Bush and other key presidential advisers. They also made far more use of media interviews and speeches to promote U.S. foreign policy than their predecessors.
Armitage made clear in the interview that the public appearances had another design, as well -- to reflect and register the views of the State Department as well as influence the shaping of policy.
"When Secretary Powell speaks or when Rich Armitage speaks, we're putting out our views. And we will do so respectfully, of course,'' Armitage said according to a text released Friday by the State Department. "This is what the president paid us for, to bring him our views.''
"And, of course, he can agreee with us or not, as he chooses,'' Armitage said.
Armitage offered no examples of specific areas or issues of disagreement, although his response was to a question that suggested that Powell and he had been at odds with other top administration officials on policies involving North Korea and the Middle East.
Powell is known to have pushed for negotiations with North Korea over its nuclear weapons programs, a strategy Bush adopted after months of review at the beginning of his first term. On the Middle East, Powell sometimes sought more flexibility from Israel, than did the White House, in dealing with the Palestinians.
"You don't want a government that sees everything the same way,'' Armitage said. "That would be bad -- it would lead to bad government, in my view.''
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Maybe he should've asked his President if this course was acceptable FIRST!
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Nightmare at Foggy Bottom: Arabists Panicked At Prospect of Rice's Appointments - 11-25-04
Nightmare at Foggy Bottom: Arabists panicked at prospect of Rice's appointments
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State William Burns stands in front of a picture of late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in the West Bank city of Ramallah, on Nov. 21.
Colin Powell has long operated on the principle, "Don't rock the boat."
It was his credo at the State Department where he usually sidestepped appointments and diplomacy.
But Powell is gone, to be replaced by National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Foggy Bottom is scared. Nowhere is the fear more palpable than in the department's Near East Bureau. There, the fear is that Rice will bring in her own Middle East team and sideline the naysayers who opposed the war in Iraq, a vigorous campaign against Iranian nuclear weapons and the boycott of the late Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.
Powell spent much of his time protecting the Near East Bureau, particularly Assistant Secretary of State William Burns, from the rest of the administration. But Rice wants a new policy based on a bold approach to peace and democracy. She doesn't want any more winks to the Saudis or Syrians. When Bush talks about a new Middle East, Rice wants both U.S. allies and adversaries to know that he means it.
Rice has been considering appointing Daniella Pletka, a senior researcher at the American Enterprise Institute, to be the new assistant secretary of state.
Pletka is different from Burns as night is to day. A scholar on the Middle East and former congressional aide, Pletka does not share Foggy Bottom's approach of holding U.S. foreign policy captive to pleasing Saudi Arabia and its allies. Indeed, Pletka believes that the Arab kingdom is desperate for U.S. help and is even willing, if pressed, to make meaningful democratic reforms.
The prospect of Burns being replaced by a conservative scholar as Near East bureau chief is a nightmare for many career diplomats. Department sources said many diplomats are discussing a mass resignation if Pletka is appointed. Some have been urging their Arab counterparts to express concern over Pletka's candidacy. Yes, Pletka makes no secret of being pro-Israel.
Rice has been urged to choose a compromise candidate, such as U.S. Ambassador to Egypt David Welch. The argument is that Welch is highly regarded by the rank-and-file and would win the respect of Arab diplomats.
A bigger fear to Foggy Bottom is Rice's intention to recommend Undersecretary of State John Bolton to become deputy secretary of state. Bolton, the administration's point man on nonproliferation, is the bane of every career diplomat: he speaks plainly and speaks his mind. Stay tuned.
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By my calculations, the fumigation plan started at State, since Goss didn't go to the CIA until April 2005 .. indicating that's probably where the gangrene was the most putrid and infectious ... pretty obvious prioritizing.