March 28, 2004, The Blind Leading the Blind, Deaf, and Peculiarly Dumb...
It seems that the United States, Britain and Australia are not the only countries who have been engaging in various exercises in "self-exploration" regarding their nations' multifarious intelligence assessments of Iraqi non-conventional weapons leading into the Iraq adventure. It seems that Israel is also engaging itself in such an exercise, and a panel charged with examining Israeli intelligence before the run-up to Gulf War II greatly criticized that nation's own intelligence services as providing grossly inadequate and inaccurate information.
That would seem peculiarly troubling to me: the United States, in addition to deliberately forged British intelligence stolen from academic papers and magazine articles, as well as our own "intelligence" community, relied heavily upon back-channels from Israeli intelligence and, of course, more direct channels from the Iraqi emigre community (led by convicted embezzler and Iraqi-heir-apparent Ahmed Chalabi), which insisted that Saddam had a massive, readily deployable stockpile of chemical, biological and probably nuclear weapons (along with the Romulan cloaking device, and Klingon model photon torpedoes). The fact is, as many of us knew for certain at the time, and the rest of us learned later, Iraq had bubkes. Nada. Not a bloody vial of bad shit (in a country... the size of California). And enough of the partisan, cheerleading charade-- such Iraqi unconventional weapons simply don't exist. Not in Iraq. Not in Syria. Not on the moon. Nowhere. Having failed to plant them in Iraq thus far, seeing as said weapons don't actually exist, our military will never find them, which should give the President some slide-show-yuks for a long time to come.
So... is it really possible that Israeli intelligence was as wildly wrong as its American and British counterparts? Well, no... it isn't possible, actually. Israeli security actually IS more competent than its American and British counterparts, largely because it has no margin for error. Unlike either the United States or Britain, Israel has been threatened by Iraq in the past, and has numerous direct contacts involving actual human beings gathering actual real intelligence. We should all realize after the Jonathan Pollard fiasco that, while Israel's interests are largely consistent with those of the United States, they are not identical. Hence, it should be obvious to anyone reviewing intelligence provided by Israel that there would be a certain unstated incentive to. ahem, overstate just a little any threat that the irritating Saddam Hussein might present. (Sure, if you asked an Israeli security official, they would tell you that Hizbollah-sponsoring nuclear weapon developing Iran presents a far more serious existential threat-- but since the Bush Administration seemed so desirous of taking out Saddam at no cost to Israel-- hey, what the fuck, right?)
Hence, IMHO, the alleged Israeli intelligence failure just didn't happen. We are witnessing "Likudnik Fireside Theatre". In part, it would be nice for PM Sharon to deflect attention from a possible bribery indictment, but mostly, the alleged fallacies of Israeli intelligence will be cited later when it emerges just how much American intelligence relied on its Israeli counterparts. Its a win win situation for Sharon. The price Israel paid this round was monetary: it ordered a shitload of smallpox vaccine and fresh gas masks. Well-- better safe than sorry, guys. The price the United States has paid-- hundreds of billions of dollars, nearly 600 dead , thousands maimed for life-- is a bit steeper.
Sure, for its own public consumption, Israeli intelligence services incorrectly assessed the shit Saddam had.
But for Israeli overall purposes, its intelligence services served their nation brilliantly. Would we in the United States be able to say the same thing.
Comments
I'm glad you didn't say "Firesign Theater," or you'd have offended its performers. Actually, Keystone Kops might be more apt, except that the consequences could be vastly more dire.
Posted by Linkmeister at March 29, 2004 08:22 PM
From The Guardian July 17, 2003:
The OSP was an open and largely unfiltered conduit to the White House not only for the Iraqi opposition. It also forged close ties to a parallel, ad hoc intelligence operation inside Ariel Sharon's office in Israel specifically to bypass Mossad and provide the Bush administration with more alarmist reports on Saddam's Iraq than Mossad was prepared to authorise.
"None of the Israelis who came were cleared into the Pentagon through normal channels," said one source familiar with the visits. Instead, they were waved in on Mr Feith's authority without having to fill in the usual forms.
The exchange of information continued a long-standing relationship Mr Feith and other Washington neo-conservatives had with Israel's Likud party.
In 1996, he and Richard Perle - now an influential Pentagon figure - served as advisers to the then Likud leader, Binyamin Netanyahu. In a policy paper they wrote, entitled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, the two advisers said that Saddam would have to be destroyed, and Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Iran would have to be overthrown or destabilised, for Israel to be truly safe."
Article lays out entire scam nearly a year ago but these investigative committees keep blinders firmly in place, i.e., the scam continues
http://tinyurl.com/h7bp
Posted by cs at March 30, 2004 09:31 AM
Wade Jermyns son Philip was a highly further person. The moon held surprising zyban of light on post-war London, and Paris bellowed up from its wiry grave to be sanctified with star-dust. His interest paused a non-service-connected and exhaustive addiction to the repellently and fiendishly vaster
Posted by prescriptions online at April 1, 2004 07:20 PM
Greetings..
Posted by Cialis at May 12, 2004 07:53 AM
HI, Wow.. this is a very informative website! I enjoy your site very much! Keep up the good work!
Posted by free business grants at June 4, 2004 09:18 PM
I am in a moral quandry.
My friend searches for http://detectives.any1in.us/foster.html foster on google to screen potential roommates.
He found any1in.us , but did not visit.
I, on the other hand, searched for http://www.any1in.us/keykatcher.html keykatcher and found any1in.us.
I went there and found that http://detectives.any1in.us/asset-search.html asset search were easier to find than on google.
Should I tell him that his potential roommate is a http://cheating.any1in.us/private-investagator.html private investagator ?
Posted by V. Dombrosky at July 8, 2004 12:26 AM
Nice site. You are doing a great service to the web.
Posted by online casinos at July 25, 2004 03:48 PM
is a wonderful website! I have found more information on this one site than numerous other sites I have been to. Thank you so much for all your hard work!
Posted by best online casinos at July 27, 2004 06:31 AM
Very interesting!Thanks!
Posted by subseven troyan at July 28, 2004 09:53 PM
FROM: MRS.JUSTINA MBAMAKA.
KENVIN MBAMAKA
ABIDJAN CÔTE D'IVOIRE
TRANSFER FOR ONWARD INVESTEMENTS.
Dear Sir,
I am well confident of your capability of executing this transaction for
the mutual benefit of our both families,believing that you will not expose
or betray the trust and confident I am about to repose on you.
I am contacting you with the greatest delight and personal respect. I am
MRS.JUSTINA MBAMAKA., the wife of late DR BENARD MBAMAKA the personal Assistant
to the former minister of Mineral Resources of the Republic of Sierra-Leone
who was recently murdered by the Forces Loyal to Corporal Foday Sankoh,
due to his support to the incumbent elected President Tejan Kabbah to remain
in the office as reported on the cable Network News(CNN)and by the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). I got your contact on my desprate search
for a reliable person / company for partner ship investment overseas believing
you are sincere and trustworthy person and of transparent honesty and capable
of handling this transaction to the best of your knowledge for
the mutual benefit of our both families.
Before thé death of my husband he disclosed to me about thé total sum of
13, million US dollars he deposited under a suspence account with a bank
Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire . This fund represent thé huge sales of Gold and Diamond
he diverted while in office as thé Assistant to the director general of
Gold and Diamond mining coperation in Sierra Leone. For security reason
according to my late husband he made an agreement with thé bank that his
partner/beneficiary will come forward to submit his/her details for the
retrevement of the fund to his/her bank account . DR BENARD MBAMAKA, my
late husband adviced me incase if he died that I should look for a foreigner
who will stand as the beneficiary of the fund so that the fund will be reteved
to his / her account for partner ship investment.
Right now, I am in Abidjan Cote d'Ivoire with my son KENVIN MBAMAKA for
thé porpose of transfering this fund to a trust worthy account. Meanwhile,
I am writing to know if you can stand as thé beneficiary of the fund for
onward investment that you will introduce in your
country.
Note that after thé retrevement is made you can then travel with you to
your country for the investment ,you will also provide me and my son to
secure thé necessary documents to enable us travel with you for thé investment.
On confirmation of your interest to assist us, thé certificate of deposit
with other documents that covers they fund which was issued to my late husband
by thé bank on thé day he deposited thé fund, will be forwarded to you for
your confirmation and 20% of thé total sum will be offered to you for your
assistance while 3% will be set aside for any expences that might arise
during thé transaction. Indicate
your interest as soon as you recieved this mail, and note that this transaction
need to be confidential for securty reasons.
God bless you and your family
I am waiting to hear from you.
Best Regards
justina mbamaka and son
Posted by mrs,justina mbamaka at July 29, 2004 01:41 PM
Great site. Enjoyed it.
Posted by reality porn videos at July 30, 2004 03:15 AM
Gute Webseite! I'll tell my friends about it... )N
Posted by gay new at August 3, 2004 07:27 AM
Cool Site. Wish there were more like this one on the Net.
Posted by stories online at August 7, 2004 07:51 AM
awesome !
Posted by anal sex at August 8, 2004 02:53 AM
2330 You can buy viagra from this site :http://www.ed.greatnow.com
Posted by Viagra at August 8, 2004 05:01 AM
104 Why is Texas holdem so darn popular all the sudden?
http://www.texas-holdem.greatnow.com
Posted by texas holdem at August 9, 2004 06:44 PM
Excellent site. Keep up the good work.
http://www.888-online-casino.biz
http://www.888-on-net.biz
Posted by online casino at August 12, 2004 04:26 PM
4958 check out the hot blackjack at http://www.blackjack-p.com here you can play blackjack online all you want! So everyone ~SMURKLE~
Posted by blackjack at August 23, 2004 05:24 AM
Keep up the good work.
http://www.buy-v-online.biz
http://www.online-texas-holdem.biz
Posted by viagra at August 24, 2004 03:45 PM
8014 Herie http://blaja.web-cialis.com is online for all your black jack needs. We also have your blackjack needs met as well ;-)
Posted by blackjack at August 25, 2004 04:17 AM
784 check out http://texhold.levitra-i.com for texas hold em online action boodrow
Posted by texas hold em at August 26, 2004 08:48 AM
683 Look at http://oncas.tramadol-web.com/
its the hizzy for online casino action any where!
Posted by online casino at August 28, 2004 08:43 AM