Kwiatkowski
Posted on 08/06/2003 6:12:51 PM PDT by konijn
Insider fires a broadside at Rumsfeld's office By Jim Lobe
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 [Hussein] occupation [of Iraq] 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.
According to Kwiatkowski, the same operation that allegedly cooked the intelligence also was responsible for the administration's failure to anticipate the problems that now dog the US occupation in Iraq, or, in her more colorful words, that have placed 150,000 US troops in "the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan".
Kwiatkowski's comments echo the worst fears of some lawmakers, who have begun looking into the OSP's role in the administration's mistaken assumptions in Iraq. Some are even comparing it to the off-the-books operation run from the National Security Council (NSC) during the Ronald Reagan administration that later resulted in the Iran-Contra scandal.
"That office [OSP] was charged with collecting, vetting, disseminating intelligence completely outside the normal intelligence apparatus," David Obey, a senior Democrat in the House of Representatives, said last month. "In fact, it appears that the information collected by this office was in some instances not even shared with the established intelligence agencies and in numerous instances was passed on to the National Security Council and the president without having been vetted with anyone other than [Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld]."
Little is known about OSP, which was originally created by Rumsfeld and his top deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to investigate possible links between Saddam and Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist group. While only a dozen people officially worked in the office at its largest, scores of "consultants" were brought in on contract, many of them closely identified with the neo-conservative and pro-Likud views held by the Pentagon leadership.
Headed by a gung-ho former navy officer, William Luti, and a scholarly national-security analyst, Abram Shulsky, OSP was given complete access to reams of raw intelligence produced by the US intelligence community and became the preferred stop, when in town, for defectors handled by the Iraqi National Congress (INC), led by Ahmed Chalabi.
It also maintained close relations with the Defense Policy Board (DPB), which was then chaired by Richard Perle of the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Feith's mentor in the Reagan administration. Perle and Feith, whose published views on Israeli policy echo the right-wing Likud party, co-authored a 1996 memo for then-prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that argued that Saddam's ouster in Iraq would enable Israel to transform the balance of power in the Middle East in its favor.
The DPB included some of Perle's closest associates, including former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director James Woolsey and the former Republican speaker of the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich, who played prominent roles in pushing the public case that Iraq represented an imminent threat to the United States and that it was closely tied to al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks.
In her article, Kwiatkowski wrote that OSP's work was marked by three major characteristics:
First, career Pentagon analysts assigned to Rumsfeld's office were generally excluded from what were "key areas of interest" to Feith, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld, notably Israel, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia. "In terms of Israel and Iraq, all primary staff work was conducted by political appointees; in the case of Israel, a desk officer appointee from the Washington Institute for Near Policy [a think tank closely tied to the main pro-Israel lobby in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]."
Second, the same group of appointees tended to work with like-minded political appointees in other agencies, especially the State Department, the NSC, and Vice President Dick Cheney's office, rather than with those agencies' career analysts or the CIA. "I personally witnessed several cases of staff officers being told not to contact their counterparts at State or the National Security Council because that particular decision would be processed through a different channel," Kwiatkowski wrote.
The CIA's exclusion from this network could help explain why Cheney and his National Security Advisor, I Lewis Libby, a long-time associate of Wolfowitz, frequently visited the agency, in what analysts widely regarded as pressure to conform to OSP assessments.
Third, this exclusion of professional and independent opinions, both within the Pentagon and across government agencies - according to Kwiatkowski - resulted in "groupthink", a technical term defined as "reasoning or decision-making by a group, often characterized by uncritical acceptance of conformity to prevailing points of view". In this case, the prevailing points of view were presumably shaped by neo-conservatives like Feith, Wolfowitz and Perle.
Kwiatkowski's broadside coincides with the appearance in neo-conservative media outlets, notably the Wall Street Journal, of defenses of Feith, who is widely seen as the Pentagon's most likely fall guy if it is forced to shoulder blame for bad intelligence and planning. The government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pressed President George W Bush to fire Feith for several months, according to diplomatic sources.
In a lengthy defense published on Tuesday, the associate editor of the Journal's editorial page described Feith's policy workshop as "the world's most effective think tank".
(Inter Press Service)
Kwiatkowski's broadside coincides with the appearance in neo-conservative media outlets, notably the Wall Street Journal, of defenses of Feith, who is widely seen as the Pentagon's most likely fall guy if it is forced to shoulder blame for bad intelligence and planning. The government of British Prime Minister Tony Blair has pressed President George W Bush to fire Feith for several months, according to diplomatic sources.Broadside indeed. More like blindside. More like revenge of the clerks, the apparatchik class striking back hard at the Rumsfeld machine using their sympathizers in the press. Here is a link to the so-called neo-con defense of Feith. I would provide some porno links too in honor of my communion's new Bishop, but I fear I would get banned.
She's lucky she was allowed to retire before being court-martialed.
Oh yes, how dare her. To work in the Armed Forces and after retiring not tow the Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Perle line? Shocking, simply shocking. Here's the article that they're probably talking about.
Yawn.
An example of her other thoughts. It's testimony to the fact that women have a tough time getting fired in government service.
Thanks for the link. I have known some weak sisters in the military, but she is a leading candidate for the funny farm.
One can see rather easily that Mizzzzzzzzzzzz Kwiatkowski had a pre-planned agenda before dipping her toe into the Pentagon tides by reading some of her past articles at LewRockwell.com.
Military retirement, after all, isn't what it used to be. The "talking heads" field is rather full of conservative military mouthpieces. But an anti-whatever, female, colonel who can not only spell "Duh" but knows rather intimately its meaning might be able to find a nice little niche for herself in the civilian world.
She could be recalled to active duty and court-martialed It's entirely possible, although not probable (after all, a court-martial would merely give her a martyr's platform to rage from).
Welcome aboard, newbie. We need a leftie like yourself to bless us with their presence now and then. Only proves to us how important our conservative values are.
"Bumpy ride" you said? Mmm-hmm. Plaster all the lipstick you want on Dean, newbie, but a pig's still a pig. Why should we be worrying about a bumpy ride?
Can you say George McGovern?
"Early Bird", - very familiar with this publication. I worked two defense contracts where "the boss" let it be known (I work IT) that this publication would be available for them to read.
I wish I still had access to that - very concise what's what, globally, read.
senior Pentagon Middle East specialist
Sorry. An Lt Col is nothing more than a coffee boy / girl in the world of the Pentagon. "Staff weenie" would be a better description.
until her retirement in April.
Nice hack job. At least you were smart enough to wait until you were out. Good luck in getting a civilian job in anything remotely related to what you did the service.
worked in the office of Under Secretary of Defense for Policy
I worked in the OSD world for 5 years, two different contracts. Lot's of visitors from OSD top level. Never heard of the Policy office. Not that my not knowing means much, but we were extremely tangled up in the top level.
This, somehow, implies that this lowly L/C was privy to everything that Rumsfeld did or planned to do. That is really hard to believe.
According to Kwiatkowski, the same operation that allegedly cooked the intelligence also was responsible for the administration's failure to anticipate the problems that now dog the US occupation in Iraq, or, in her more colorful words, that have placed 150,000 US troops in "the world's nastiest rat's nest, without a nation-building plan, without significant international support and without an exit plan".
Somebody pissed Karen off and now she is out for revenge / money.
I may well be wrong on my take on this, but I smell a rat.
LVM
At least your son had the balls to serve in the military.
Now, take your troll a$$ back under the rock where you crawled out from - DU.
LVM
A light-colonel is like the middle munchin in a seven-child family at the Pentagon.
And with good reason. The well has been poisoned by the "career" eunuchs.
When one can't win the debate with facts, something you and the Mizzzzzzzzzzz Light-Colonel can't do, head for the name-calling angle.
Are you a registered democrat, did you vote for billy klinton?
And two:
Were you recognized during the past few years as doing a less that up to snuff job and therefore unhappy during your last couple of years of service?
And three:
Why bring this up now and not earlier?
A Light Colonel, high in OSD. . . and failed for promotion was probably a Clinton holdover who was passed over a few times and had to retire. A fast tracker Light Colonel doesn't retire after working at the OSD. They get promoted and go back to the real world as a Wing Commander or IG for a major command.
This story really stimks of a rat !
Don't sell your buddy Saddam short,friday.The end results of this "takeover" are yet to be determined,but,at a minimum a few things have changed.The money and/or materiel flowing from Iraq to the terrorists in Palestine has dried up and theres a bit less blood flowing in the streets of Israel.And,there are fewer people-I would estimate none now-having to watch their disloyal to Saddam relatives being fed to woodchippers.
History will be the judge of this operation,not you.
If it is anti-Bush or anti-GOP, Rockhead will be sure to print it just like the New York Slimes.
Check out this thread.
Rumsfeld Initiates A Change of Command
I think the leftovers from the Scumbag Administration and the communist liberal mice who continue to skitter around the State Department are beginning to feel the heat. Au revoir, scum!
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