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June
19, 2003
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June
19, 2003
Punch-and-Judy in
the West Wing
The
Powell-Rice Show
By BRIAN CLOUGHLEY
Exactly forty years ago there was a scandal in
London involving a cabinet minister who told lies. He was expelled
from Parliament in disgrace and there were many prominent people
with egg on their faces and, if rumours were to be believed,
on other parts of their anatomies. One of the main figures was
a vivacious tart called Mandy Rice-Davies who was questioned
in court by a pompous ass who announced that Lord Astor had denied
having been to bed with her. In a devastating riposte she said
"Well, he would, wouldn't he?" Following this low blow
the entire Establishment looked extremely silly, which indubitably
it was.
On the anniversary of this titillating
episode (about which I know a little at the lower levels, as
it were, having been a young subaltern around town at the time)
the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell, together with the president's
adviser on foreign relations, Condoleezza Rice, came to the support
of a ludicrously confused Bush on the matter of undiscovered
'weapons of mass destruction' in Iraq. Their statements were
blunt. Powell declared "It is outrageous of some critics
to say that [administration claims] were all bogus", and
Rice announced that "this was a regime that had the [weapons
of mass destruction] capability".
Well, they would, wouldn't they?
In Powell's blustering attempt at refutation
he used the word "all". He said it was outrageous for
critics to say that administration claims were ALL bogus. Ergo,
some of the critics' statements were not outrageous. If they
were not outrageous then one presumes some were justified, which
is more than was Powell's silly video-game circus in February
about Iraq's supposed arsenal. Then Rice bumbled in to admit
that Bush had 'misinformed' the world when he declared Iraq had
negotiated to buy uranium from Niger in West Africa. She said
on NBC's Meet the Press that "we did not know at the time
- maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the [Central Intelligence]
agency - but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts
and suspicions that this might be a forgery. Of course it was
information that was mistaken." Of course.
The Bush statement about supply of uranium
to Iraq came in the most important speech an American president
can make, apart from a declaration of war : the annual State
of the Union Address in January. (Which this year was a declaration
of belligerence against every country declining to toe the Bush
line without question.) Rice says that "no one in our circles
knew" the declaration to the world by the US president was
based on obviously forged material. I say she is a liar. Perhaps
Bush is not a deliberate liar in this case because he doesn't
understand much of what he is fed by his circle of devious zealots
and has not the mental ability to be able to assess material
presented to him. But for his closest associate to claim that
nobody knew the claim that Iraq "sought significant quantities
of uranium from Africa" was untrue is absurd. The White
House mind-manipulators do not permit dramatic announcements
to be made to the world without checking them. The allegation
that perhaps a CIA officer knew the facts but was somehow unable
to say that the nuclear story was garbage is, well, garbage.
If Bush's definitive speech was not triple-checked
for accuracy, then the White House is grossly incompetent. If
it was checked and the several untrue items were detected and
allowed to remain in the speech, the White House is contemptuous
of the truth and of all of us out here. If it was checked and
the untrue items were not identified (which is what Rice is claiming),
the intelligence process of the United States is a shambles -
not just "in the bowels of the agency", as Rice condescendingly
has it, but throughout the entire intelligence system. The Director
of Central Intelligence, George Tenet, is the person responsible
for the information that provided Bush's pretext for going to
war. Is Rice trying to tell us that the speech was not cleared
through him, when so much of it rested on supposed intelligence?
If Tenet approved it without demanding proof from within his
agency of the Iraq-Africa uranium nexus, he is not fit to be
director. If he signed off on the speech without querying anything,
one would assume he is dumb (and he is not). We could go on and
on - but the salient thing is that lies were told by the president
of the United States to the American people, and someone is responsible.
Just where does the buck stop in the Byzantine dungheap that
is the Washington of Bush? Tenet says that accurate information
was provided. I believe him. What stinks is the way the intelligence
product was politically twisted.
As to Bush's repeated declarations about
hundreds of tons of toxic substances, Rice was adamant that "No
one ever said that we knew precisely where all of these agents
were, where they were stored." This is not so. In February
Powell showed imagery of supposed storage areas to the Security
Council. On 30 March defence secretary Rumsfeld declared "We
know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad
and east, west, south and north somewhat."
Who is telling the truth? One wonders
if these people speak to each other about the stories they are
concocting - because one of them is making things up. You cannot
be more precise than saying "We know where they are".
Either Rice or Powell or Rumsfeld is telling a lie about this
aspect of the whole squalid, fraudulent business, and it isn't
just the American people who should be told the truth, but the
entire world, because the war waged by Bush and Blair on Iraq
killed thousands of civilians, supposedly for our security. What
are the facts?
Bush told us in a speech in Ohio on 7
October 2002 that "Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq
is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its
nuclear program in the past." Note the plural : the world
was informed by no less an authority than the US president that
Iraq was engaged in a nuclear weapons' programme at more than
one location. According to Bush, the facilities had been identified
by image interpreters.
One of the many unusual things I did
in uniform was to complete the Long Photographic Interpretation
Course at the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre, then
at RAF Brampton in the UK. I practised the art for a year in
the Middle East before transferring to something more to my liking
(and to that of the Intelligence Corps of which I was no ornament,
I must admit). But I have not forgotten the requirements of an
interpreter, and have kept contact with some experts involved
in this fascinating work.
If there had been reconstruction, as
stated unequivocally by Bush, the imagery analysts would have
provided exact details of what was going on. Such reports are
amazingly comprehensive, and their summaries (the Janet and John
bit) leave no intelligent reader in doubt as to what has been
discovered - or not discovered. Precision is vital, or the process
is meaningless. But now we know there was nothing going on. There
was no construction whatever at any of the old nuclear sites,
none of which was in any way operative. All had been sealed by
UN inspectors (as they recorded, publicly), and the Pentagon
knew what was in them. The Pentagon failed to order the army
to take the sites immediately, thus allowing civilians to enter
and take away useful objects such as barrels for storing water.
These poor villagers could not possibly know that they now face
a lingering and horrible death from radiation poisoning, courtesy
of Rumsfeld's callous incompetence. But it is bizarre that the
nuclear sites at which Bush said Iraq was "rebuilding facilities"
were not secured, if only because Bush had warned the world of
their dangers. Who cooked the books and weaselled the words?
The most notably mendacious statement
was that by vice-president Cheney who said on 16 March that "we
believe [Iraq] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I
think [the UN nuclear expert] Mr. El Baradei, frankly, is wrong".
But it was Cheney who was wrong, because there were no nuclear
weapons. Cheney and the rest of them lied to us. Further, he
and the other war-supporters in Britain and America have brought
political pressure to bear on Parliament and Congress to deny
citizens the right to public inquiries into their activities.
Well, they would, wouldn't they?
Brian Cloughley
writes about defense issues for CounterPunch, Dawn and other
international publications. He can be reached at: beecluff@aol.com
Today's Features
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
Elaine
Cassel
Dark Star Chambers: Secret Trials,
Nameless Defendents, Veiled Threats to Defense Lawyers
Col.
Daniel Smith
Iraq's WMDs: Integrity, Ethics and
Intelligence
Chris
Fagen
Ignoring the World's Bloodiest War
Rick
Fantasia and Kim Voss
Bush's Low Intensity War on Labor
Sam
Hamod
Theater of Deception: Bush, Sharon,
Abbas
M.
Shahid Alam
Illuminating Tom Friedman
Jon
Brown
Greens & Dems: a Reply to Publius
Steve
Perry
Bush's Wars
Web Log, 6/18
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