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Scarecrow's exceptional post this morning about the idiocy that was Doug Feith's cook-the-intel-books Office of Special Plans shop lays out, in all its glory, the efforts to re-write reality to suit the Bush Administration's pre-fab plans for Iraq.  The WaPo article lays all of this out in clear language.  And the Senate Armed Services Committee will no doubt get to the details of the IG's report today.

The NYTimes adds another layer of accountability onto this story, which I think deserves not only a mention, but also a whole lot of sunshine.  To wit:

...In a rebuttal to an earlier draft of Mr. Gimble’s report, Eric S. Edelman, the under secretary of defense, said the group’s activities were authorized by Mr. Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul D. Wolfowitz. They did not produce formal intelligence assessments, and they were properly shared, the rebuttal said.

In a statement issued Thursday, Mr. Feith, who left the Pentagon in 2005, made similar points. Mr. Rumsfeld did not respond to telephone messages seeking comment.

According to Congressional officials, Mr. Feith’s statement and the policy office’s rebuttal, the report concluded that none of the Pentagon’s activities were illegal and that they did not violate Defense Department directives.

But the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, said in a statement that because the inspector general considered the work of Mr. Feith’s group to be “intelligence activities,” the committee would investigate whether the Pentagon violated the National Security Act of 1947 by failing to notify Congress about the group’s work....

The Senate Intelligence Committee, meanwhile, is completing work on its own investigation into the use of intelligence by policy makers in the months before the Iraq war. Under Republican leadership, it had delayed an examination of Mr. Feith’s activities pending the outcome of the inspector general’s report.

The Pentagon’s rebuttal vehemently rejected the report’s contention that there was “inappropriate” use of intelligence by Pentagon civilians and said the effort to identify links between Saddam Hussein’s government and Al Qaeda was done at the direction of Mr. Wolfowitz, who was deputy defense secretary at the time.

Describing the work as a “fresh, critical look” at intelligence agency conclusions about Al Qaeda and Iraq, the Pentagon rebuttal said, “It is somewhat difficult to understand how activities that admittedly were lawful and authorized (in this case by either the secretary of defense or the deputy secretary of defense) could nevertheless be characterized as ‘inappropriate.’ ”

The Feith operation dates to shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when the Pentagon established a small team of civilians to sift through existing intelligence with the aim of finding possible links between terror networks and governments. Bush administration officials contended that intelligence agencies were ignoring reports of collaboration between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

By the summer of 2002, the group, whose membership evolved over time, was aimed at identifying links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq.

The inspector general’s report criticizes a July 25, 2002, memo, written by an intelligence analyst detailed to Mr. Feith’s office, titled, “Iraq and al-Qaida: Making the Case.”

The memo said that, while “some analysts have argued” that Osama bin Laden would not cooperate with secular Arab entities like Iraq, “reporting indicates otherwise.”

The inspector general concluded that the memo constituted an “alternative intelligence assessment” from that given by the Central Intelligence Agency and other intelligence agencies and that it led to a briefing on links between Al Qaeda and Iraq that was given to senior Bush administration officials in August 2002, according to excerpts of the draft inspector general report quoted by Mr. Edelman....  (emphasis mine)

Two points here. One, the OSP may have been operating with the imprimatur of Vice President Dick Cheney, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then Deputy Secretary Paul Wolfowitz.  But, last I checked, the President of the United States was using their skewed intel to not only "evaluate" information in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, but also to sell this festering, chaotic mess to the American public. 

So the President is either (a) just as responsible and as much of a promoter of lies as everyone else with their fingers in the OSP pie or (b) an easily led moron who does whatever Dick and Rummy tell him is the right thing to do, regardless of the basis or lack thereof in reality and truth.  You choose.

Second, and this is the point which gives me the most pleasure in the whole article:  the Dick Cheney/David Addington/neocon unilateral executive theory of Presidential superiority wherein the laws are declared to be for the little people?  Well, ooops, guess that's not so true.  The National Security Act of 1947 is a long and detailed set of requirements for the operation of any and all intelligence activities within the United States government.  It was put together after WWII by the Truman Administration and the Congress as the foundation for the CIA and other intelligence agencies, specifically to ensure certain ground rules and uniformity, and to expressly provide for Congressional oversight of any and all of the vast power of intelligence gathering that the Executive Branch might deem necessary for national security purposes.

Guess which group did not bother the follow the law and failed to do proper notification to the Intel committees in Congress?   Say hello to Mr. Oversight and Ms. Accountability.  And let the sun shine in...because it is way past time for a whole lot of festering secrets from the George, Dick and Rummy Intel Chop Shop to be dragged out into the open. 

In case you were wondering, this is one of the many reasons we worked so hard to get Democrats elected last Fall.  Congressional oversight and checks and balances -- it's a beautiful thing. 

And while we're all asking questions, let's throw this one out there:  how do we know that all the intel that is being thrown around regarding Iran isn't coming from yet another one of these cobbled together, secret, intel chop shops within the bowels of the Pentagon or the Vice President's office?  Hmmmm?  Isn't it about time we all started asking the hard questions of this Administration and requiring that they provide proof of each and every claim they make? 

Ultimately, every national security matter these days comes down to the following:  do you trust George Bush's judgment to make the right decision based on complete, honest, and real information?  Because for me, that answer is decidedly: no.  How about you?