Key architect of Iraq war defends case for US-led invasion (Feith: "It was an honest error")

[Barrett808]

Source: AFP

Key architect of Iraq war defends case for US-led invasion
by Dan De Luce
Mon May 19, 4:53 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An influential architect of the war in Iraq defended the case for US military action on Monday, saying the failure to find weapons of mass destruction did not mean the decision to invade was a mistake.

Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense for policy from 2001 to 2005, said Saddam Hussein posed a serious threat to the United States due to his links to terrorist groups and his regime's potential to produce biological and chemical weapons.

"And even based on what we have learned since, even though we didn't find the WMD stockpiles that the CIA had said we would find in Iraq, what we did find ... was a serious WMD threat in Iraq because Saddam had maintained programs for biological and chemical weapons," he said at a news conference promoting his new memoir, "War and Decision."

...

"It was an honest error, not a lie," he said. "Even if you correct for that error, what we found in Iraq was a serious WMD threat."

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080519/pl_afp/usiraqmilitarypolitics

---

Did I mention how much I loathe this man?

[mediaman007]

1. Check the length of his nose!

[saigon68]

33. War Criminal who helped KILL thousands

[wtmusic]

2. One million Iraqi families can't "correct" for that error, Doug

You are a war criminal, and if there is any justice you'll be punished as such.

[Snarkoleptic]

3. Feith is "the dumbest fucking guy on the planet" - Gen. Tommy Franks

He looks the part of the narrow minded limp dick repuke...

[jpak]

4. Feith: War Criminal

He will have his Day In Court

Soon enuff...

[Arctic Dave]

5. Hey Doug!

I'm waiting for you:evilgrin: I have such sights to show you.

[bluesmail]

6. ...it was an honest error...it was an honest error...it was an honest

WMD's WMD's WMD's WMD's...Sadaam is evil...Sadaam, Axis of evil...axis of evil..axis of evil.

[no_hypocrisy]

7. "It was an honest error."

Reminds me of Voltaire's pronouncement of the Holy Roman Empire: It was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.

[NRaleighLiberal]

8. Just another utterly pathetic piece of shit dirt bag gift of the misadministration to the world.

I have no clue whatsoever how these people can stand themselves. Drink the Kool Aid? they have it coursing through their veins.

[jeff30997]

9. "due to his links to terrorist groups "

Yeah yeah yeah.Nobody in their right mind believe that crap.Now Doogie,why don't we talk about Saudi Arabia instead hey?

[Jack Rabbit]

10. Let me try to figure this out

We went to war, Mr. Feith said in 2002, because Saddam had weapons of mas destruction. Except he didn't have weapons of mass destruction.

Mr. Feith would sound awfully silly if he still tried to assert that there were WMDs, so at least he's smarter that Dick Cheney and doesn't try to keep selling that snake oil. So, Mr. Feith says now, Saddam was still a threat, because he could always restart his WMD program.

Addressing myself now to the defendant, Mr. Feith.

Mr. Feith, that is horsepucky. No WMDs, no threat. No threat, no justification for war. Capice?

The problem with your argument is that as head of the OSP, you dissembled intelligence analysis of the Iraq-al Qaida ties, by writing alternate analysis the "show" that Saddam did have active ties to al Qaida. To make case, you relied on documents that had already been discredited, such as one asserting that 911 jijacker Mohammad Atta met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001. However, you guys in the Pentagon and your fellow prevaricators in the White House kept pushing this crap long after it had been discredited.

So don't tell me or any one else that these were honest mistakes, Mr. Feith. You were at the center of the effort to provide false and misleading information to justify the invasion.

The defendant, Mr. Feith, is charge with conspiring to start a war of aggression against the sovereign state of Iraq, for which there was no causus belli. Mr. Feith is specifically charged with concocting and propagating false justification for said war, and that he knew said justification was false.

I ask the jury to find the defendant guilty.

[NCDem60]

12. When Republicans had some sense

Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

[coalition_unwilling]

44. Feith and his fellow cronies lied when they called the Iraq War a

"preemptive" war. For a war to be preemptive, one must be seeking to preempt an actual threat. This was, by Feith's own words, a "preventive war" (designed to prevent the emergence of a threat in the future).

Feith should note that Nuremburg solidly established the principle that 'preventive' wars are the pre-eminent (npi) crime against the peace.

There is no such thing as a lawful 'preventive war,' unless said war is authorized by a vote of the U.N. Security Council.

Get ready for your war crimes trials, you piece of human excrement.

[Lionel Mandrake]

39. Waging aggressive war

was one of the principal charges against the top Nazis at the Nuremberg trials. Who would have thought then that the US president and others in his administration would commit the same crime 60 years later?

[stillcool]

11. Torture is an honest error too!

[Miss Chybil]

13. B...S...!!!!!!! nt.

[whoneedstickets]

14. An error is only honest if extensive fact checking is performed..

..and it somehow escapes. Errors advanced in the absence of a diligent search for contrary evidence are "lies of omission".

[Phred42]

15. Chickenshit Bastard - Send him to the Hague

[unblock]

16. no such thing as an honest error in wars of aggression.

you really should never strike first.

but if you DO strike first, you damn well better be right.

you don't get to say, "oops!"


of course, all this presumes that they really did err.
personally, i'm convinced that the entire point of the war was simply to take a competing oil source offline for years so as to jack up the price of oil and the profits of his oil cronies.

[lutefisk]

41. Exactly- there is no "oops" free pass when the stakes are this high

If we lived in a just and decent Nation, Feith and many others from the Bush administration would have been dealt with through legal channels by now. And if that had happened, I have no doubt they would have paid a heavy price for their incompetence or disloyalty- it doesn't matter which it was.

"I think the main point that comes out was how difficult the president's decision was in weighing the risks of acting against Saddam or weighing the risks of inaction. Either course -- removing Saddam or leaving Saddam in power -- involved enormous risks," he said.

Don't "risks" have consequences for those who take them? Apparently not for the spoiled children ruling America.

[coalition_unwilling]

45. Support our Oops! - n/t

[unblock]

48. snark!

:spray:

[Old and In the Way]

17. I wonder if the American people in 1945 would have accepted such a pithy explanation

from the planners of Pearl Harbor? Hope Doug makes the short list for war criminals.

[Trajan]

18. Fucking Liar ...

The CIA found scant evidence of WMD, but Feith's Office of Special Plans, with the help of Cheney's strong armed methods of intelligence gathering, were able to construct evidence, rejected by the CIA, brought to light by one specific 'Curveball' ....

Douglas Feith ? ... You're a goddamned liar, and we all know it ...

[LaStrega]

19. honest my ass k/r n/t

[samsingh]

20. feith is a lying disgusting sob that has caused thousands of American deaths

[struggle4progress]

21. He's lied so often for so long he can no longer control himself. It's sad.

[EFerrari]

22. Sink scum with language. n/t

[pfitz59]

23. String him up!

LIAR!

[Spinzonner]

24. Shouldn't that be Honest Debacle ?

[Art_from_Ark]

25. This is what bu$h actually meant when he talked about a

"Feith-based initiative"

[badgervan]

26. I Really Wish.....

... we could turn this idiot into a pinata and let every American who has lost a loved one in Iraq take a whack at him with the heaviest bat made.

[santamargarita]

27. Honest Error my ass! You're All War Criminals!

-

[Zorra]

28. Quick, somebody send for the men in the white coats. n/t

[Ian David]

29. Let's not bicker and argue over who killed who.... this is supposed to be a happy occasion!

[DCKit]

30. A few tidbits on Dougie. A poor representation of a human being.

http://www.nndb.com/people/100/000047956/

"Described by General Tommy Franks as either "the dumbest fucking guy on the planet" (according to Franks' autobiography) or "the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the Earth" (according to Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack), Douglas Feith began his long Washington career as a Middle East specialist under Richard V. Allen at the National Security Council (1981-82), then he spent two years at the Pentagon as the staff lawyer for Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle. Then in 1984 Feith was promoted to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy, where he stayed for another two-and-a-half years before leaving for the private sector."

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1146.html

"The IG's unclassified report, released in April 2007, corroborated allegations that Feith was behind efforts to erroneously connect Saddam Hussein's Iraqi regime with al-Qaida. The report found that despite widespread consensus among intelligence agencies, including the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), that there was no conclusive evidence linking Iraq to al-Qaida, Feith ignored these conclusions. In a September 2002 briefing delivered to Vice President Dick Cheney and other administration higher-ups, Feith asserted that the relationship between Iraq and al-Qaida was, according to a Washington Post account, "'mature' and 'symbiotic,' marked by shared interests and evidenced by cooperation across 10 categories, including training, financing, and logistics." The report also stated that it is "noteworthy ... that post-war debriefs of Saddam Hussein, Tariq Aziz, al Tikriti, and al-Libi, as well as document exploitation by DIA, all confirmed that the Intelligence Community was correct: Iraq and al-Qaida did not cooperate in all categories" alleged by Feith's office (Washington Post, April 6, 2007)."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith

"1982 NSC alleged firing and security clearance controversy

It has been alleged by Former NSC Intelligence Director Vincent Cannistraro and author Stephen Green that Douglas Feith involuntarily left the NSC in March, 1982 and lost his security clearance after he fell under suspicion of the FBI for passing classified material to Israeli embassy officials who were not entitled to receive it.<39><40><41> This would have required the Bush administration to reissue Feith his clearance before bringing him into the Pentagon.<42> This version of events is disputed by the NSC head at the time, Judge William Clark. When a Montana newspaper reported this accusation, Clark, who was Reagan's National Security Adviser at the relevant time, wrote a September 22, 2005 letter to the editor<43> to correct the record:

Your article cites a Mr. Cannistraro to the effect that Mr. Feith was fired for wrongdoing from President Reagan's National Security Council in 1982. I was President Reagan's National Security Advisor at the time and I tell you that is untrue. Mr. Feith served honorably on my staff and went on to serve well at the Pentagon under Secretary Cap Weinberger. Because of his fine record, President George W. Bush hired him as his Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. "

[gratuitous]

31. Okay, so the bridge was out

It was still the right decision to drive off a cliff. The fact that there isn't a bridge to carry us across the chasm is immaterial to the decision to drive off this cliff. It was an honest mistake. Let's not get all bent out of shape about it.

[yardwork]

32. Duke University should be ashamed to have this fraud on its faculty.

[calimary]

34. An honest error. Yeah.

And Adolf Hitler was a moustache-styling model.

[Javaman]

35. Is that what his mom said after she dropped him on his head? nt

[LynnTheDem]

36. "the CIA said we would find in Iraq"???!! EXSQUEEZE ME???!

July 2002 – CIA WARNINGS (about lack of "WMD") TO WHITE HOUSE EXPOSED
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0630selling.htm

October 2002 – CIA DIRECTLY WARNS WHITE HOUSE

"The CIA sent two memos to the White House in October voicing strong doubts about a claim President Bush made three months later in the State of the Union address that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa."
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/nation/6362092.htm

FEBURARY 24, 2003 – CIA WARNS WHITE HOUSE ‘NO DIRECT EVIDENCE’ OF WMD
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3340723 /

CIA to Bush: 'No clear Evidence of WMD'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120103A.shtml

Why the CIA thinks Bush is wrong
The president says the US has to act now against Iraq. The trouble is, his own security services don't agree.
http://www.sundayherald.com/28384

CIA in blow to Bush attack plans
The letter also comes at a time when the CIA is competing with the more hawkish Pentagon, which is also supplying the White House with intelligence on the Iraqi threat.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,808970,00.html

White House 'exaggerating Iraqi threat'
Bush's televised address attacked by US intelligence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,807286,00.html

"honest error" Yeah sure.

[Bragi]

37. Doug, how's the global book tour going?

Oh sorry, I forgot. Like other members of the Bush cabal, you can't actually travel abroad to promote your book, or for any other reason, what with concerns about being served by indepdendent prosecutors with war crimes charges.

Yes indeed. :rofl: :rofl:

- B

[tigereye]

38. yeah he made a great case for himself on the Daily Show the other night

:eyes:

and with a straight face. Incredible.

[KansDem]

40. Well, he got that *half* right. It was an "error."

But in no way were they "honest." No way...!!!

[cliss]

42. The f***er.

Can you believe this statement?

"Even if you correct for that error, what we found in Iraq was a serious WMD threat".

Where?
In what way?
How?

See how these idiots operate? First he says that Iraq was an honest error. Then he says that in fact it WAS a threat, which is a non-non-denial-non.
Stupid clown.

[coalition_unwilling]

43. Feith should be the first U.S. official indicted for war crimes and

crimes against humanity. After all, if the Israelis prosecuted and convicted Adolf Eichmann (a low-level functionary by comparison with Feith) . . .

[Solly Mack]

46. Can't stop the lying

even though we didn't find WMD we found a serious WMD Threat...

LMAO

[daleo]

47. There is a reason he is making this claim

There is ample scientific evidence that people are much more likely to forgive an honest mistake than a lie, given the same consequences of the action. This a dodge that criminals have been using for a long time.

[Barrett808]

51. Intent is what makes an accident a crime. n/t

[daleo]

52. True, but a crime requires a prosecutor

Unfortunately, it looks like nobody is willing to take on that responsibility, so the Bush war criminals will skate. This is very bad, because it just emboldens their ilk for the next time they gain power.

[Amonester]

49. nah-nah-nah-nah nah-nah-nah-nah hey-hey-hey goodbye (to The Hague)

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html

IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY

Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.

This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
~~~
http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/memos.html

nah-nah-nah-nah nah-nah-nah-nah hey-hey-hey goodbye... (when?)

[opihimoimoi]

50. Mistake his ASS...fuck him, the lyin scum.....POS