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sexobon · 09-16-2011, 10:46 AM

@Dani: If you haven't already seen it, the PBS Frontline story Top Secret America (Premiere Date: 09/06/2011 - video|transcript) may help you further sort things out.

Here's an excerpt:

"RICHARD CLARKE, White House Terrorism Advisor, 1998-01: So in the past, covert action was done by CIA. The President had to approve covert action and notify the Congress. Now a lot of what looks like the same sort of thing, covert action, is done by JSOC. Now they say when they do it, it’s not covert action. It’s a military operation. So the president does not by law have to approve every operation and the intelligence committees are not notified.

NARRATOR: Then in Afghanistan, a story circulated that Rumsfeld wanted to use JSOC forces on a new battlefield, Iraq.

GARY SCHROEN, CIA, 1970-02: You could see changes being made in the U.S. military staffing in Afghanistan, that the Green Beret units, the 5th Special Forces group for the most part were being pulled out to refit and get ready for Iraq. And it was clear that the kind of guys that I think a lot of us believed were essential U.S. military personnel with special operations capabilities were being pulled away.

MICHAEL SCHEUER, Former CIA Officer: By 2002 in the springtime, it was almost taken for granted that we were going to go to war with Iraq.

NARRATOR: The president needed a convincing reason for war with Saddam Hussein. George Tenet and the CIA said they had no evidence Saddam had helped al Qaeda, but Secretary Rumsfeld did. A secret unit at the Pentagon claimed it had found a connection.

MELVIN GOODMAN, Fmr. CIA Officer: They needed an office that would produce the intelligence that the CIA wouldn’t produce. Rumsfeld said, “I can solve your problem,” and they created the Office of Special Plans.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, Nat’l Security Council, 1994-99: So they’re going to do their own analysis. They’re going to show what the CIA’s been missing all along about the true relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda.

NARRATOR: They worked in a vault deep inside the Pentagon. They had what is known as “all source clearances”─ total access to intelligence information.

F. MICHAEL MALOOF, Defense Dept., 1982-04: I went into the system, our classified system, to see what did we know about terrorist groups and their relationships, as well as their connection, associations with not only al Qaeda, but also with state sponsors.

NARRATOR: The information was rarely vetted. Instead, it moved up the chain of command to the office of the vice president.

MELVIN GOODMAN: And this became material that was then used, sort of in white paper-like fashion, to be leaked to journalists or to create links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.

NARRATOR: It was delivered to the American public and the world.

Vice Pres. DICK CHENEY: New information has come to light. And we spent time looking at that relationship between Iraq on the one hand and the al Qaeda organization on the other. And there has been reporting that suggests that there have been a number of contacts over the years.

NARRATOR: And they began relying on a new phrase, “weapons of mass destruction.”

CONDOLEEZZA RICE, National Security Adviser: ─nuclear weapons, but we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.

COLIN POWELL, Secretary of State: Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world.

NEWSCASTER: A rapid series of 40 explosions lit up Baghdad in the early morning hours.

NEWSCASTER: Military officials have been using the term “shock and awe” to describe the assault on Iraq.

NARRATOR: By the spring of 2003, the U.S. had attacked Iraq."

09-16-2011, 10:46 AM	#1354
sexobon I love it when a plan comes together. Join Date: Oct 2009 Posts: 9,793	@Dani: If you haven't already seen it, the PBS Frontline story Top Secret America (Premiere Date: 09/06/2011 - video\|transcript) may help you further sort things out. Here's an excerpt: "RICHARD CLARKE, White House Terrorism Advisor, 1998-01: So in the past, covert action was done by CIA. The President had to approve covert action and notify the Congress. Now a lot of what looks like the same sort of thing, covert action, is done by JSOC. Now they say when they do it, it’s not covert action. It’s a military operation. So the president does not by law have to approve every operation and the intelligence committees are not notified. NARRATOR: Then in Afghanistan, a story circulated that Rumsfeld wanted to use JSOC forces on a new battlefield, Iraq. GARY SCHROEN, CIA, 1970-02: You could see changes being made in the U.S. military staffing in Afghanistan, that the Green Beret units, the 5th Special Forces group for the most part were being pulled out to refit and get ready for Iraq. And it was clear that the kind of guys that I think a lot of us believed were essential U.S. military personnel with special operations capabilities were being pulled away. MICHAEL SCHEUER, Former CIA Officer: By 2002 in the springtime, it was almost taken for granted that we were going to go to war with Iraq. NARRATOR: The president needed a convincing reason for war with Saddam Hussein. George Tenet and the CIA said they had no evidence Saddam had helped al Qaeda, but Secretary Rumsfeld did. A secret unit at the Pentagon claimed it had found a connection. MELVIN GOODMAN, Fmr. CIA Officer: They needed an office that would produce the intelligence that the CIA wouldn’t produce. Rumsfeld said, “I can solve your problem,” and they created the Office of Special Plans. DANIEL BENJAMIN, Nat’l Security Council, 1994-99: So they’re going to do their own analysis. They’re going to show what the CIA’s been missing all along about the true relationship between Saddam and al Qaeda. NARRATOR: They worked in a vault deep inside the Pentagon. They had what is known as “all source clearances”─ total access to intelligence information. F. MICHAEL MALOOF, Defense Dept., 1982-04: I went into the system, our classified system, to see what did we know about terrorist groups and their relationships, as well as their connection, associations with not only al Qaeda, but also with state sponsors. NARRATOR: The information was rarely vetted. Instead, it moved up the chain of command to the office of the vice president. MELVIN GOODMAN: And this became material that was then used, sort of in white paper-like fashion, to be leaked to journalists or to create links between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda. NARRATOR: It was delivered to the American public and the world. Vice Pres. DICK CHENEY: New information has come to light. And we spent time looking at that relationship between Iraq on the one hand and the al Qaeda organization on the other. And there has been reporting that suggests that there have been a number of contacts over the years. NARRATOR: And they began relying on a new phrase, “weapons of mass destruction.” CONDOLEEZZA RICE, National Security Adviser: ─nuclear weapons, but we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. COLIN POWELL, Secretary of State: Leaving Saddam Hussein in possession of weapons of mass destruction for a few more months or years is not an option, not in a post-September 11th world. NEWSCASTER: A rapid series of 40 explosions lit up Baghdad in the early morning hours. NEWSCASTER: Military officials have been using the term “shock and awe” to describe the assault on Iraq. NARRATOR: By the spring of 2003, the U.S. had attacked Iraq."