The Suskind book and a possible bill of impeachment.

"A new book by the author Ron Suskind claims that the White House ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein.

Suskind writes in “The Way of the World,” to be published Tuesday, that the alleged forgery – adamantly denied by the White House – was designed to portray a false link between Hussein’s regime and al Qaeda as a justification for the Iraq war.

The author also claims that the Bush administration had information from a top Iraqi intelligence official “that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq – intelligence they received in plenty of time to stop an invasion.”

The letter’s existence has been reported before, and it had been written about as if it were genuine. It was passed in Baghdad to a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph who wrote about it on the front page of Dec. 14, 2003, under the headline, “Terrorist behind September 11 strike ‘was trained by Saddam.’”  Politico

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Suskind argues that this charge, if proven, would constitute a "High Crime."  I agree.  "Reasons of State" may be an excuse for such behavior in some polities, but, it is clear that it is not in the United States.

President Bush is called a liar and a law-breaker in this book.  The charge is that he, personally, ordered some documents forged and others ignored in order to lure the American people into support of a foreign war.  These are charges that make Bll Clinton's difficulties with his libido look rather trivial.

The charge is so serious that Bush deserves an opportunity to clear his name of the accusation.  Therefore, the House Judiciary Committee should meet to consider a bill of impeachment. Anything less will leave a stain on Bush that will follow his family name down through the ages.  pl

Note:  I know Ron Suskind fairly well and respect both him and what I have read of his work in the past.  I have not discussed this book with him although we have talked about the general direction of his work.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0808/12308.html

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

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Suskind_Congress_wants_testimony_about_Iraq_0806.html

Comments

[Clifford Kiracofe]

Well the letter allegation is consistent with other deceptions we were manipulated by. "Aluminum tubes"? "Yellow cake"? Remember those and all the rest?

Also, that false story about some terrorist "meeting in Prague" that Cheney and others kept pushing. This was promoted as I recall vaguely by a Czech politician and also by a former head of Israeli military intelligence.

Add to this the stories recently about Cheney's ideas of provoking the Iranians using faked speedboats and imposters.

So it seems certainly within the realm of possibility that the Bush-Cheney crowd cooked the letter and much more we don't yet know about.

Deceiving the American people into an unnecessary war would seem to me to fit the "High Crime" category. I am not a lawyer but I would think the issue of treason could somehow be involved as well.

[Homer]

alnval: whether the rot in the country is so pervasive and widespread as to be incurable.

It is rotten to the core ...

Any enabler of Bush in the Congress should probably be flushed down the toilet like the turd that they are!

Over the last 10 or so years, there has been some really freaky stuff that has occurred w/o precedence and has given great benefits to the GOP.

So freaky that it smacks of careful organization.

Just look at what has happened in the elections, the economy, etc from Bush vs Gore onward.

And who has profited handsomely at every turn?

God Save America!!

[Paul]

No doubt the perpetrators of these crimes will be protected by their political cronies. Bush, Cheney and the rest of them will be kicking back at their respective ranches a-la-Rumsfeld while denying and defending every illegality they put into play in their "war on terror".

The recently concluded Red Army-like show-trial at Gitmo squarely places a bullseye on the back of every U.S. military person serving abroad.

The civilians, including congress, and the weak military leadership who concocted these tribunals have placed a permanent stain on the U.S. military. We can expect reciprocal show trials by those who dislike us. Shore liberty has just become dangerous.

How could we have allowed this to happen?

[Bartolo]

On the complicit Dem leaders, their out surely could be that they were not given all the facts; in fact were lied to and threatened not to speak.

Given the low bar set by the GOP for the Clinton impeachment, I can't see why they can't get Bush.

[Tyler]

Help is not going to come from the outside. The Hague will not arrest a former POTUS/VP, and if they did the media spin cycle would have a field day as we whipped up the troops to go invade Europe.

It seems like a typically American attitude (and I say this as an American) nowadays to wait for someone on the outside to come in and take care of your problem.

To paraphrase Machiavelli: If you would raise a sword against your prince, you must be prepared to throw away the scabbard.

Until American anger and dissent goes beyond the level of angrily posting on blogs and writing letters that are ignored by your congressmen, nothing will change.

[JohnS]

Our modern Washington elite respects raw power, not the rule of law. For the same reason that Dems handed Bush the FISA "upgrade," with retroactive immunity for telcos and his administration, there will be no Bush impeachment over Iraq, or anything else: the Dems were complicit. Furthermore, the media will not be clamoring for impeachment either, for the exact same reason. They all knew what was going on and they still allowed it to happen. I'm not even sure this crew has the stomach for a post-Bush era Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Note: the website Raw Story is reporting that Suskind's two sources (both CIA) are recanting. Suskind says his sources are under "enormous pressure" to change their stories, but he's got 'em on tape.

[J]

Colonel,

suskind is now saying that his sources are under intense pressure from the white house to recant/deny their statements regarding white house forgery.

the thing is that suskind recorded all his interviews, so they can now deny all they want under pressure, and all suskind has to do is bring out their recorded statements.

suskind's sources really need to be hauled before congress to tell the truth under threat of perjury.
the white house is really starting to feel the heat and they're striking back in a very vicious manner.

[Marcus]

Agree with above comments about a gutless, soulless Congress. Expediency and political advantage is the only thing this corrupt organizations cares about.

About the only thing propping up this state is court system and that is close to being fully compromised, Bush v. Gore the example of blight there.

[Buff52]

Have forgotten 9/11. President Bush was pursuing a "forward deployed" strategy in attacking all entities including foreign countries that support terrorism. You are either for us or against us. Saddam Hussein and Iraq fit this profile.

This struggle is as convuluted as was our war with the Barbary Pirates from 1794 to 1803. President Bush should be given the benefit of the doubt. We are at war.

[zenpundit]

Hi Col. Lang,

Someone has to be a dissenter, so here goes:

With all due respect to Mr. Suskind, and I have The One Percent Doctrine sitting on my shelf, these charges beg questions:

Normally carrying out covert-ops require a presidential finding, a NSDD/PDD at the NSC level and notification of relevant Congrssional committees. How would a forgery be done without a paper trail ?

Skip over Tenet. Why would Bush and Cheney trust the CIA senior management to not leak an order of this nature ?

For that matter, why would they trust the CIA to be able to create a reasonable forgery in the first place without contracting out the expertise ?

[Patrick Lang]

zenpundit

I rather doubt that an order delivered as one sheet of paper would have been thought of in that situation as a covert action requiring a finding.

What? you think Tenet would have refused the order without the finding?

Who says they didn't contract it out?

As Suskind said today to Blitzer, "you are surprised at stupidity in this administration?" pl

[mlaw230]

Not acceptable in this politie? Have you forgotten the Maine? Tonkin Gulf? The medical students endangered on Grenada or the coincidence of General Noriega's shocking drug trade involvement just prior to turn over of the canal? How about Bush 41's falsified "baby incubator" story or the Iraqi troops massing to attack Saudi Arabia before Desert Storm?

The politie is just fine with "reasons of state" so long as it isn't but so obvious and, of course victory is rapidly achieved or declared.

[David Habakkuk]

J,

Thanks for that list of references -- very valuable to have so many links relating to the disinformation system put together.

With the Habbush letter, we once again see how the ability of the disinformation peddlers to muddy the waters is related to the way that they cross national boundaries, while the people who they seek to influence -- and those who attempt to shed light on their operations -- commonly do not.

The author of the story in which the forgery appeared was not simply 'a reporter for The (London) Sunday Telegraph', as the Politico story describes him. He is the former Managing Editor of the paper, Con Coughlin -- Britain's answer to Judy Miller. But while Miller has been put out to grass, Coughlin soldiers on. Having previously been Defence and Intelligence editor of the Daily Telegraph, he is now the paper's executive foreign editor -- and as such in an excellent position to maintain neocon Jacobin orthodoxy in what was once a conservative paper.

It also puts him in an excellent position to act as a kind of satellite, where disinformation sourced in the U.S. can be received and transmitted back to a U.S. audience.

It is symptomatic that Coughlin's Wikipedia entry, while describing his disinformation peddling activities, locates them in a purely British context:

'Coughlin has been criticized for writing highly controversial unsubstantiated articles that provide justification for British foreign policy, which have subsequently been proven false. He has a history of accepting phoney stories from MI6 and then publishing articles in the name of fabricated sources. He has been accused of being a conduit for Black propaganda.'

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Con_Coughlin.)

The effect is to obscure some of the reasons why the disinformation system of which he is part functions so effectively. Cutting across borders in this way makes the process by which black propaganda is created and transmitted more difficult to pin down -- and also facilitates the passing off of disinformation as genuine information.

Anyone in Britain familiar with the long stream of dubious reports Coughlin has produced would not dream of taking any claims he makes on trust. But people in the US have no reason to be familiar with his record -- and given his position could perfectly well assume, in good faith, that he is a serious journalist.

[jr786]

Treason never prospers, etc.

In any case, there is little difference between this alleged forgery and the other deceptions, deflections and misconceptions that have been employed to support previous imperial schemes. All you need are capitalists and brown-skinned people - the rest takes care of itself.

Rather than complain (I am reminded of the waste of energy reminding the Lantos eulogists of the Nurse Nayira nonsense and the babies ripped from incubators) we would all do well in coming to a consensus on a compelling counter-narrative, another outlook on what the United States can and should be, at least in regard to correcting the excesses of the Imperialists.

We'd have to exclude history, of course, since most Homelanders have had their consciousness of American history erased along with their capacity for critical thinking.

I'm off for an extended stay in the Middle East shortly, where I intend to start my long-planned homage to Lytton Strachey: Eminent Neo-cons. I'm open to suggestions for candidates.

[Cold War Zoomie]

There's a lot of rending of garments and gnashing of teeth about our decline as a nation.

The pendulum swings. It has been this bad before:

Gilded Age Politics

And counter forces emerged.

We're going to see changes over the coming years in both political parties.

[Farmer Don]

It was easy to impeach Clinton, because no one shared his blame.
But there can be no self rightess indignation and shock when we ourselves were happy and eager to strike back after 9/11, not carring who we were going to hurt.
Bush would still be liked if the war had gone well. All the Arabs that got killed/mamed/ruined do not rate at all for a lot of people in the western world.
I know when the war was starting, a lot of my friends knew that it was all made up, but just didn't care. God, most of the world's leaders advised against the adventure.
When you are putting blame on the pres.& US gov., don't forget the millions of ordinary people who knew what was going on, but just wanted to kick some arab butt, and didn't give a s*** about the truth.

[Farmer Don]

As soon as the US starting moving troops to the middle east, every one knew the war was coming. They weren't gong over there for a vacation were they? How long did the setting up for the war take? If my memory is right over 6 months. All the time Blitz was saying no weapons of mass destruction.
You don't "impeach" the leader of your gang, when a mugging you were all for turns bad, and the victim puts up more of a fight than you bargined for.
You just grumble and try to let everyone forget you had anything to do with it.

[John Drake]

Pelosi and Conyers both mistakenly believe that Obama will win in a landslide. They are wrong. McCain's political hacks who own the voting machines will manufacture a squeeker win that will echo the "religious right coming out to vote for Bush at the last moment syndrome." This time it will be "Americans who are afraid of anti-american muslims who threaten our values." Then when McInsane takes the leash, all political hell will break loose and we will see martial law or it's reasonable facsimile. The Dems are trading off a chimera win for the totalitarian state that is upon us.

[CafeenMan]

Should this prove true...Mr. Bush should have his bedroom wall papered with photographs of the war dead..with actual photographs of battlefield causualties liberally sprinkled amongst them. When he wakes up and goes to bed thereupon he must gaze.

Posted by: 505th PIR | 06 August 2008 at 10:29 AM

I don't think that would bother him a bit.

[Patrick Lang]

zenpundit

Also -

They would not have wanted a finding to exist that sanctioned a clearly illegal action.

They probably thought that Tenet would do this himself, not realizing that Tenet's only real talent is the same as Monica's pl

[Easyrider]

Around Watergate, E. Howard Hunt had been ordered by someone in WH to forge WH JFK's cables ordering the assination of Rep. of S Vietnam President Diem. If JFK had really done this, they wouldn't have to forge them. Said cables were found in Hunt's WH safe, and handed over to then FBI Dir. L.Patrick Grey who promptly burned them at his Stonington CT home. So it's a presidential perogative to forge when so desired, particulary when "accountability is off the table".

[Warren Street]

Why does accountability need to happen before Bush leaves office?

If accountability happens after he and his cronies leave office, there won't be anyone around to pardon him, provided we have a President who understands the rule of law.

[Paul]

This is more than just a high crime. After our dead and casualties, and ~1.4 million Iraqi dead and millions of destroyed lives, the false pretense that was the basis for this war makes reduces it to an illegal war of aggression, basically, for purposes of colonization. That...is a crime against humanity for which he and his administration should be compelled to suffer justice. At the Hague. That he has used the war as an opportunity to desecrate the Constitution is an act that has nullified the sacrifices and service of all who have served this country to defend and protect the Constitution, going all the way back to the beginnings of this nation. All this from a sociopathic coward and a deserter.

George W. Bush is the arch-criminal of American history. He must be brought to justice by competent authority.

[SharonB]

I used to hope in the Hague. I do not think old Europe will have the fortitude to take this administration to task. International Justice is reserved for petty third world criminals.

The first and second world get a pass.

Sigh.

[CJ]

Even without this letter, if it does turn out to be true, there has been more than enough evidence in the public domain to impeach Cheney and Bush for years for any number of greivous offenses against the Constitution and the American people. The worst crime of all, however, is the failure to impeach, because what the Bush/Cheney regime has done is successfully establish new anti-Constitutional precedents for future administrations, all ratified by the cowardice of the Congress.