"Not one single piece of information was proved. We went to war based on garbage."
Neil Macay of the Sunday Herald reported a story almost a month ago that I have yet to see discussed in U.S. media. (Of course, it's possible I missed it, but I don't think so).
Macay revealed that Britain ran a covert "dirty tricks" operation to put out misleading intelligence that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction in order to give the UK a justification to wage war in Iraq.
According to Macay's investigative report, "Operation Rockingham, established by the Defence Intelligence Staff within the Ministry of Defence in 1991, was set up to 'cherry-pick' intelligence proving an active Iraqi WMD programme and to ignore and quash intelligence which indicated that Saddam's stockpiles had been destroyed or wound down."
Sound familiar?
He further discloses that the existence of this operation was confirmed by Scott Ritter, former UN Chief Weapons Inspector, and "a US military intelligence officer." 'This policy was coming from the very highest levels,' Ritter added. 'Rockingham was spinning reports and emphasising reports that showed non-compliance (by Iraq with UN inspections) and quashing those which showed compliance. It was cherry-picking intelligence.'
Ritter and other intelligence sources say Operation Rockingham and MI6 were supplying skewed information to the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) which, Tony Blair has told the Commons, was behind the intelligence dossiers that the government published to convince the parliament and the people of the necessity of war against Iraq. Sources in both the British and US intelligence community are now equating the JIC with the Office of Special Plans (OSP) in the US Pentagon. The OSP was set up by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to gather intelligence which would prove the case for war. In a staggering attack on the OSP, former CIA officer Larry Johnson told the Sunday Herald the OSP was 'dangerous for US national security and a threat to world peace', adding that it 'lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing Saddam'.
He added: 'It's a group of ideologues with pre-determined notions of truth and reality. They take bits of intelligence to support their agenda and ignore anything contrary. They should be eliminated.'"
This is potent stuff, people. So where's an astute, eagle-eyed, investigative reporter when ya need one? Hell--one? We need a train-load of them just to begin to cover all of the scandals swirling around Bush and Blair.
At least the Brits are reporting...keep it up, blokes--we need you.
Read Macay's entire report: Revealed: the secret cabal which spun for Blair
Related articles:
- Blair's secret weapon - Sunday Herald
- How damaged is the government? - James Cusick - Sunday Herald
- Why America is waking up to the truth about WMD - Marion McKeone - Sunday Herald
- Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel - By Murray Waas - The National Journal:
"Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter."
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