The NIE Watergates Bush
By
Saul Landau
“Look,
Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous, if
they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”
—George
Bush,
Dec. 4, 2007
“We
have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much
of it, or what functions it serves. … Bullshitters seek to convey a
certain impression of themselves without being concerned about
whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules
governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth
and falsity are irrelevant.”
—Prof.
Harry Frankfurt
(1986)
In
early December, an intelligence report served as the instrument to
disgrace Bush and Cheney.
By
Saul Landau Read Spanish Version
“Look,
Iran was dangerous, Iran is dangerous and Iran will be dangerous, if
they have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”
—George
Bush,
Dec. 4, 2007
“We
have no clear understanding of what bullshit is, why there is so much
of it, or what functions it serves. … Bullshitters seek to convey a
certain impression of themselves without being concerned about
whether anything at all is true. They quietly change the rules
governing their end of the conversation so that claims about truth
and falsity are irrelevant.”
—Prof.
Harry Frankfurt
(1986)
In
early December, an intelligence report served as the instrument to
disgrace Bush and Cheney. Behind this apparently benign act stood the
relieved super rich and their government guardian who saw the
reckless policies of Bush and Cheney as a threat to their power and
fortunes.
In
the early 1970s, the Establishment worried about Nixon. He brought a
California crowd into the White House who didn’t consult the
bastions of old power and wealth. Then, “Deep
Throat” serendipitously emerged to reveal to Washington
Post
reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein details of Nixon’s
involvement in a criminal break-in at Democratic Party Headquarters
in Washington’s Watergate complex, and of a subsequent White House
cover up. In August 1974, Nixon — facing impeachment — resigned.
The power structure breathed a collective sigh of relief.
In
December 2007, intelligence boss Mike McConnell released a National
Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report that humiliated Bush and Cheney.
By making facts about the non-functioning
of
Iran’s nuke program public, the NIE removed the Bush zealots’
ostensible reason for starting another war. The “experts”
concluded “with high confidence” that Iran had shut down its
nuclear weapons program in 2003, thus nullifying the Bush’s pretext
for bombing that country. The spooks also deduced that Iran might
make a weapon by 2015 — if it reactivated its dormant program.
Compare
that report with Bush’s September claim that Iran’s nuclear
program could ignite World War III; reminiscent of Cheney’s
2002 rhetoric to show why Iraq needed invading because Saddam Hussein
had tried to buy yellowcake uranium in Niger to make a nuclear WMD.
Bush and Cheney also scoffed at intelligence reports that cast major
doubt on these allegations. Bush still rejects the conclusion that
Iran shut down its nuclear weapons production. (He also rejects
evolution.)
By
making this NIE public, the CIA further weakened Bush’s already
damaged credibility. He no longer intimidates and he stands exposed
as a fraud.
The
CIA informed Bush in August of its benign findings, but he shrugged
off the facts and continued to insist on war as his answer to a
non-existent threat. So, McConnell released the report which, for
Bush, compares with his twins making the centerfold of Playboy
— on
the humiliation scale.
The
intelligence community sucker punched the Great Intimidator — in
public. Their NIE averred implicitly that
Iran’s
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hated Holocaust denier and only
remaining axis of evil personage, had told the truth about Iran not
developing nuclear weapons. Conversely, Bush and Cheney, leaders of
the World Alliance for God and Good (WAGG), prevaricated through
their proverbial teeth.
The
NIE derailed the White House policy of the bombing of Iran and led to
a prolonged scream from neo con heavies like Norman Podhoretz, editor
of Commentary,
and Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy. They now bleat
on TV about “treason” in high places (CIA) and the nation’s
desperate need to bomb Iran immediately.
Douglas
Feith, Bush’s former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy from
July 2001 until he resigned in August 2005, spoke to the American
Enterprise Institute in Washington in December and defended his own
failed policies in Iraq. Some neo cons demand a “Team B” report
to invalidate the NIE, an equivalent of former CIA Chief William
Casey’s ploy to resurrect the Soviet threat.
In
1980, after U.S. intelligence concluded the USSR posed less of a
threat to the West than in previous decades, Casey handpicked another
team of “experts” who predictably found the declining Soviet
Union more dangerous than ever. Team B thugs backed Reagan’s
aggressive posture to build more missiles and a Star Wars defense.
Bush
and Cheney, like Reagan and Casey, disregard their intelligence
services — for which taxpayers pay $40 billion per year
—
and
instead relied on Israel’s Mossad, whose spies rejected the CIA
findings. Israeli intelligence clings to its claim that Iran will
soon build a nuke.
For
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak publicizing the NIE report meant
a “blow to the groin” of Israel. (Truth is a kick in the balls?
Bombing is good for Israeli manhood?) Will Bush now secretly
encourage Israel to use some its own nuclear stockpile to launch a
“preemptive strike” against Iran?
For
Bush, good nations behave obediently. England and now France, for
example, should possess nuclear weapons. Sort-of-good Pakistan still
rates approval (obedient by mouth, which is good enough); and of
course, beloved Israel — with 200 or more nukes.
Iran,
the only remaining member of Bush’s “axis of evil,” began
punching the United States in the fist with its face in 1953 when
Iranians brazenly elected a democratic government. The CIA and their
British equivalent in the name of anti-communism and in the interest
of the oil companies overthrew that government and set up a puppet
Shah, who ruled despotically until 1979 when militant Muslims dumped
him and established a theocracy. In 1980, Iranian militants held CIA
and other U.S. officials hostage for more than a year — thus
humiliating numero uno.
The
President and most presidential aspirants follow the U.S. axiom. To
keep its status, Washington without casus belli invades and occupies
other countries. Those who dare challenge such blatantly illegal
behavior now become Islamofascists.
Acting
in the Lord’s name, U.S. presidents took revenge for Iran’s
insolent behavior. After failing to revive the Shah’s rule, the
U.S. backed the now hated but then useful Saddam Hussein who
dutifully, and with U.S. aid, invaded Iran in 1980.
After
almost a decade of Iraq-Iran slaughter, the United States punished
Iran with sanctions — while covertly selling it missiles to support
anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua.
9/11
allowed Bush to declare a permanent and perpetual war against
terrorism, thus undermining traditional foreign policy methods for
unabashed aggression. His neo con advisers usurped power from the
traditional Establishment, much as Nixon did with his California
outsiders. The neo cons invaded the intelligence apparatus, much as
Nixon’s Plumbers assumed FBI and CIA tasks. (Plumbers sealed
“leaks” — to the press.) CREEP (Committee and Finance Committee
to Re-elect the President) allowed Nixon his own private budget as
well as a White House intelligence and police operation. Such
behavior made the traditional agency heads seriously pissed off.
Bush
and Cheney’s war-loving intellectuals like Richard Perle, Paul
Wolfowitz and Feith manipulated
intelligence in order to use 9/11 to generate fear. They pushed the
country into war with Iraq — which had nothing to do with 9/11. Even
after the invasion turned sour, the neo cons pursued their plan to
attack Iran. Now discredited, these men writhe from the
NIE’s kick to their cerebral groins.
The
repercussions from the revelation will play out in Europe as well.
Bush’s plan to place missiles in Poland and the Czech Republic as a
defensive shield against Iran’s “nuclear threat” has drawn the
ire of Russian President Putin. Russia’s leader sees Bush repeating
Truman and Churchill’s Cold War policies of 60 years ago, using a
non-existent threat (Iran) as a pretext to militarily encircle
Russia. In 1947, Truman declared the USSR an imminent threat to
attack Western Europe while the Soviets still licked their wounds
after losing more than 20 million people in World War II.
Repetition
of history with a new metaphor! The groin kick — an intelligence
report to the balls — should help abate the “hate Iran” fever
that replaced the 2001-2003 “hate Iraq” zeal. The NIE revealed to
the U.S. public that Bush and Cheney were dangerous bullshitters who
spread malicious lies about Iran. Previously, they had accused
Teheran with providing Iraqi insurgents bombs to kill U.S. military
personnel, a line that remains in Bush’s verbal arsenal.
Sadly,
presidential hopefuls from both Parties, excepting Ron Paul and
Dennis Kucinich, still buy into the anti-Iran axiom. They agree with
Bush that the
United States should not permit other nations to help anti-U.S.
insurgents albeit Washington feels duty bound — by God? — to help
pro-U.S. insurgents fight bad countries, like the Soviet Union in
Afghanistan in the 1980s. Sound like bullshit?
The
imperial bullshit level has surpassed the feeble imaginations of
Cheney, Bush
and even the presidential candidates. It emanates from the $700
billon smelly military budget pile, passed by Congress even though no
nation poses a threat.
The
NIE served to discredit Bush, which reduces chances of an imminent
war with Iran, but don’t fool yourself — it doesn’t change
fundamental U.S. policy.
Saul
Landau is an Institute for Policy Studies fellow and author of A
BUSH AND BOTOX WORLD.
