Stephen Hayes: The Truth Is Out There... (But too much of it is still classified)

FINALLY. For much of the past week, the White House has been engaged in an aggressive effort to defend the case for war in Iraq. Thus far, it has mainly pointed out the obvious: In the months and years before the invasion, many of those who now accuse the White House of misleading the country to war themselves were making precisely the same claims about the threat from Iraq as the Bush administration.

President George W. Bush accused his critics of "rewriting history." Vice President Dick Cheney called the attacks a low point of his three decades in public life. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld reminded Pentagon reporters of what Clinton administration officials were saying not so long ago. The White House press office distributed point-by-point rebuttals of claims from Democratic partisans. On Thursday, a senior White House official circulated among conservative opinion leaders a devastating eleven-page response to an error-riddled New York Times editorial. The White House created a new Iraq-focused rapid response team to monitor and counter the seemingly endless stream of misinformation from political opponents and misreporting from a political press.

The White House has relied on already-public documents--such as the Duelfer Report on Weapons of Mass Destruction, the 9/11 Commission Report, the Robb-Silbermann Report on Iraq Intelligence, and Phase I of the Senate Intelligence Committee Report--to make two points: (1) Bush administration policymakers made claims that were consistent with the consensus views of the U.S. intelligence community, and (2) there is no evidence that Bush administration policymakers "pressured" intelligence analysts to produce these assessments.

So what should come next? A massive declassification effort, to include both prewar intelligence assessments provided to policymakers by the U.S. intelligence community, and the numerous documents, photographs, and videotapes recovered in postwar Iraq.

Much of the back-and-forth between the Bush team and its critics concerns the claim that the administration exaggerated or even fabricated intelligence about Iraq. The Bush administration says its public rhetoric was backed up by intelligence assessments; administration critics disagree. The problem with this debate is that we are dependent on these interested parties to describe the underlying intelligence. Why not declassify it all--subject to a scrubbing for sources and methods--and let the public judge for itself?

There is some risk in this. The Bush administration had large chunks of the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction declassified in July 2004. It pushed for this declassification in part because the National Intelligence Estimate plainly supported the administration's prewar claims. But the move backfired. The establishment media--egged on by Democrats in Congress--seemed to be more interested in the dissenting views footnoted throughout the document than the consensus product.

But the alternative isn't attractive either. Two weeks ago, Michigan Democrat Carl Levin released two short excerpts of a much longer DIA assessment from February 2002. The excerpts Levin provided show that DIA analysts in early 2002 raised questions about the credibility of claims made by a senior al Qaeda operative about alleged Iraqi training of al Qaeda terrorists in chemical and biological warfare. That Bush administration officials continued to speak of Iraq-al Qaeda training is evidence, Levin claims, of administration deception.

So what did the rest of the February 2002 DIA document say? We don't know, because Levin declassified only two short passages. What did subsequent DIA analyses say? We don't know. What did CIA analyses say? We don't know. Did all DIA assessments of this al Qaeda operative conclude that his claims were not credible? We don't know. And why did Levin declassify only these two sections of this one document? We don't know.

By declassifying the bulk of prewar intelligence on Iraq, we could get answers to these important questions.

More urgent, however, is the expedited declassification and release of documents and other articles captured in postwar Iraq. The U.S. government possesses millions of pages of documents that taken together will provide intelligence historians--to say nothing of the American public--with an inside view of Saddam Hussein's regime.

Although it's been two-and-a-half years since the fall of the regime, only a fraction of these documents have been translated, reviewed, and catalogued. This work continues in Doha, Qatar, in Baghdad, and at a site in suburban Washington, D.C. But the work progresses slowly. It is a painstaking process, and resources devoted to it have thus far been severely limited.

Recognizing these problems, the chairmen of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees last week sent a letter to John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, requesting the declassification of the Iraqi documents.

"The sheer volume of the materials we have obtained is overwhelming our Intelligence Community's ability to properly categorize and translate the contents, analyze and review the information, verify authenticity and report to users the knowledge generated," wrote Rep. Peter Hoekstra and Sen. Pat Roberts. "We are proposing that you immediately develop a process to, consistent with necessary security guidelines and agreements with our foreign government partners, release these documents to the general public, including posting documents on the world-wide-web in a manner allowing cooperative public review. This would serve to allow the entrepreneurial, linguistic and analytical talents of the general public to dramatically assist the Intelligence Community in understanding the contents of these materials. At a minimum, this public assistance could 'point' the Intelligence Community to the small subset of information that is likely to be of importance."

There are many details to be worked out, but this is a significant development--and will be all the more so if Negroponte accedes to the request. Documents from the Iraqi Intelligence Service, those that would likely have an immediate impact on the current debate in Washington, would be examined before they could be released. But the chairmen expect that most IIS documents would be released as part of this effort.

Hoekstra told the Associated Press that he had seen one document with information on Iraq's relationships with terrorists on chemical and biological weapons, though he noted that he did not know whether the document was authentic.

There are many such documents in a U.S. intelligence database known as HARMONY. One example: Document number ICSQ-2003-00025586 was captured by the U.S. military during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Here is the synopsis of that document that appears in the database:

What does it mean? I'm not sure. On the one hand, any document under the heading "Al Qaida" that mentions "chem warfare" and "Iraqi officials" is inherently interesting. On the other, we don't know what the document tells us. Just as it is possible that the document reveals Iraqi complicity in al Qaeda's efforts to secure WMD, it is conceivable that the "papers concerning Iraqi officials" include indications that Iraqis rejected al Qaeda overtures for assistance on chemical warfare. Although some HARMONY documents are flagged as being of suspect authenticity, this one is not flagged. Still, it is possible that it is a fabrication and was entered into the database without an assessment of its authenticity.

As Sen. Roberts and Rep. Hoekstra push their proposal to declassify the untranslated Iraqi documents, the White House might seek to obtain and release those documents already translated and evaluated.

The document above has been translated. It has been summarized. It has been entered into HARMONY. We'd like to know: Is it authentic, and what else does it say?

I think these are the documents that are supposed to be forged and got us into this whole boon-doggle.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

These are reportedly portions of forged documents on supply of uranium materials by Niger to Iraq and were allegedly provided by Italian intelligence, SISMI, to British intelligence, MI6.

http://cryptome.org/niger-docs.htm

27 July 2003. More forged Nigerien documents published in Italy 27 July 2003:

http://cryptome.org/niger-docs2.htm
22 July 2003. Thanks to D., moved page 6 to properly follow page 1.

22 July 2003. Add translations of documents by Lars Vonpacker, who writes:

As you can see from the translation, it's a really bad case of trying to make these documents pass as official government communications.
While doing the translation, I stayed true to the essence of the French text.

The French of the documents sounds as if it comes right out of a Babelfish translation.

21 July 2003
Source of the 8 images: Robert Windrem, NBC News, which received them from La Repubblica.

PDF of the eight images: http://cryptome.org/niger-docs.pdf (135KB)

Five of these images appeared in hardcopy of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica on July 16, 2003. The online story without the images:

http://www.repubblica.it/online/esteri/iraqattacotrentacinque/dossier/dossier.html

They are reportedly portions of forged documents on supply of uranium materials by Niger to Iraq and were allegedly provided by Italian intelligence, SISMI, to British intelligence, MI6.

Cryptome published the five La Repubblica images on July 18:

http://cryptome.org/niger-docs-lr.htm
NBC News obtained the eight images from La Repubblica and provided them to Cryptome today.

From a Post sent out to petition sites and other Conservative sites as well:

Hello Posters,

Another March deadline will be approaching for a turn at the Pentagon following through with it's promise to aid and release information as to PROJECT HARMONY! After whitch AGAIN there would be more months of delays into getting anytraction with this investigation.

mailto:editor@weeklystandard.com

Address to write to Stephen Hayes and Editor to show support.

Write in to support Stephen Hayes in trying to obtain and make public any and all HARMONY collections of Iraqi Documents found in Iraq--from the Penatgon--that relate the Al Qaeda and Saddm/Iraq Connection!

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...6/345qrbbj.asp

" Where are the Pentagon Papers " --by Stephen Hayes

Section of importance:

"...Working outside formal Pentagon lines of inquiry, I soon learned more. Many of the documents from Doha had been entered into a database known as HARMONY. HARMONY is a thick stew of reports and findings from a variety of intelligence agencies and military units, and alongside the Iraqi documents were reports from contributing U.S. agencies. Eventually, I got a list of document titles that seemed particularly interesting:

1. Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) Correspondence to Iraq Embassy in the Philippines and Iraq MFA (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)
2. Possible al Qaeda Terror Members in Iraq
3. IIS report on Taliban-Iraq Connections Claims
4. Money Transfers from Iraq to Afghanistan
5. IIS Agent in Bulgaria
6. Iraqi Intel report on Kurdish Activities: Mention of Kurdish Report on al Qaeda--reference to al Qaeda presence in Salman Pak
7. IIS report about the relationship between IIS and the Kurdish Group Jalal Talibani [sic]
8. Iraqi Mukhabarat Structure
9. Locations of Weapons/Ammunition Storage (with map)
10. Iraqi Effort to Cooperate with Saudi Opposition Groups and Individuals
11. Order from Saddam to present $25,000 to Palestinian Suicide Bombers Families
12. IIS reports from Embassy in Paris: Plan to Influence French Stance on U.N. Security Council
13. IIS Importing and Hiding High Tech Computers in Violation of UN
14. IIS request to move persons, documents to private residences
15. Formulas and information about Iraq's Chemical Weapons Agents
16. Denial and Deception of WMD and Killing of POWs
17. 1987 orders by Hussein to use chemical weapons in the Ealisan Basin
18. Ricin research and improvement
19. Personnel file of Saad Mohammad Abd Hammadi al Deliemi
20. Memo from the Arab Liaison Committee: With a list of personnel in need of official documents
21. Fedayeen Saddam Responds to IIS regarding rumors of citizens aiding Afghanistan
22. Document from Uday Hussein regarding Taliban activity
23. Improvised Explosive Devices Plan
24. IIS reports on How French Campaigns are Financed
25. French and German relationships with Iraq
26. IIS reports about Russian Companies--News articles and potential IIS agents
27. IIS plan for 2000 of Europe's Influence of Iraq Strategy
28. IIS plans to infiltrate countries and collect information to help remove sanctions
29. Correspondence from IIS and the stations in Europe
30. Contract for satellite pictures between Russia, France and Iraq: Pictures of Neighboring Countries (Dec. 2002)
31. Chemical Gear for Fedayeen Saddam
32. Memo from the IIS to Hide Information from a U.N. Inspection team (1997)
33. Chemical Agent Purchase Orders (Dec. 2001)
34. Iraq Ministry of Defense Calls for Investigation into why documents related to WMD were found by UN inspection team
35. Correspondence between various Iraq organizations giving instructions to hide chemicals and equipment
36. Correspondence from IIS to MIC regarding information gathered by foreign intelligence satellites on WMD (Dec. 2002)
37. Correspondence from IIS to Iraqi Embassy in Malaysia
38. Cleaning chemical suits and how to hide chemicals
39. IIS plan of what to do during UNSCOM inspections (1996)
40. Secret Meeting with Taliban Group Member and Iraqi Government (Nov. 2000)...."

WHERE TO WRITE TO TO ASK FOR RELEASE and make them aware that YOU as an American want Mr. Hayes to get as much assistance as possible so as to make this story made PUBLIC!
As listed below:

" The information you requested is under the cognizance of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). We have referred your request to them at the address provided below requesting they respond directly to you. :

Defense Intelligence Agency
Attn: SVI-1, Room E4-234
Washington, DC 20340-5100

..."

For full article on Project Harmony and it's importance:

Where Are the Pentagon Papers?
The administration refuses to defend itself.
by Stephen F. Hayes
11/21/2005, Volume 011, Issue 10

See other articles as listed here:

Mother of All Connections --posted by RWR8189 07/09/05

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1440001/posts?page=1

Iraqi Inside Source to co-operate with U.S. about information:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1115387/posts

And see other articles on Stephen Hayes and articles in unison

" WHY are the democrats scared of HARMONY ??? " 2005/7/11

As if we don't already KNOW why!!--because everything and anything that would:

a) Point that CLINTON KNEW about the dangers from Saddam and Al Qaeda and did NOTHING!!....and

b) This information would Rightly so-agains support all the other reasons that Justified going into Iraq--that the democrats do not want out--and that they sad libbies on this boards do not want to face!!

c) This information would specifically show what a mis-guided-self-serving waste the 9/11 Commission was.

Darth Airborne

p.s.--and REMEMBER ABLE DANGER!

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