More than ten years later, we seem finally to be escaping the neoconservative captivity. Has the Times ever been so direct about neoconservative power and the push for war with Iraq? From Kurt Eichenwald’s op-ed in the Times saying that the Bush White House was deaf to warnings from the CIA about imminent attack by Al Qaeda:
Weeks later, on June 22, [2001] the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be “imminent,” although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible.
But some in the administration considered the warning to be just bluster. An intelligence official and a member of the Bush administration both told me in interviews that the neoconservative leaders who had recently assumed power at the Pentagon were warning the White House that the C.I.A. had been fooled; according to this theory, Bin Laden was merely pretending to be planning an attack to distract the administration from Saddam Hussein, whom the neoconservatives saw as a greater threat. Intelligence officials, these sources said, protested that the idea of Bin Laden, an Islamic fundamentalist, conspiring with Mr. Hussein, an Iraqi secularist, was ridiculous, but the neoconservatives’ suspicions were nevertheless carrying the day.
In response, the C.I.A. prepared an analysis that all but pleaded with the White House to accept that the danger from Bin Laden was real.
Walt and Mearsheimer said that the neoconservatives were a crucial element in the push for war with Iraq, and that they represented the Israel lobby. Now the Times is getting round to that awareness. Writes Sullivan, “If Romney is elected in November, these same, evidence-blind, war-mongers would be back running US foreign policy”
(Thanks to Voskamp.)
PW: … and that they [neocons] represented the Israel lobby.
That connection is not made in the two links. We’ll have to wait some 10 more years.
Agreed, the linkage between the Israel lobby and the neocons in regards to the Iraq war have not yet been made clearly because it would expose Israel and it’s lobbyists even further and the MSM is not ready for that.
As always, change come from the grassroots. That’s why AIPAC is trying to buy off student leaders from the top 50 universities by bringing them for free to Washington, showering them with gifts and subjecting them to intense propaganda.
AIPAC is a lot of things, but those folks are not stupid. They know that their propaganda is BS; support for Israel is maintained by propaganda and bribery(of Congress). So why not move that successful model to student leaders across America’s leading universities?
Mearsheimer’s position was, after all, that the neocons and the Israel lobby were a necessary ingredient for war in Iraq, without whose support it would never have happened, but that they on their own couldn’t pull it off.
They’ve been trying to disprove him for the past few years on that theory re: Iran, but so far his theory seems to be holding up pretty well against reality.
And also, a final note on the supposedly waning influence on the neocons. Don’t be so sure. They’re more than ever and they went into hibernation during the Clinton years, remember?
Their power has always been the control of the Republican media. Kristol and his Wall St backers control that section and thus will always influence a significant amount of the Washington discussion. Even if they are not in power, foreign policy is far easier for the other side to influence than on social issues like abortion or gay marriage. Besides, they are not relegated to the Republican party. They have plenty of liberal apparatchiks to help them carry their message, even if in more mild forms, to the Democratic people. And if they refuse, carry out smear campaigns like the one done against Center for American Progress.
Always count on ADL/AJC and the rest to join in the fray. Remember, the neocons are the Jewish establishment’s insurance policy. They will make sure that they are never going out of favour because there’s always that latent fear in the background, this time directed towards Israel.
Abe Foxman and the rest will never allow Bill Kristol to go out of favour. He needs him. He may disagree with him, but he will protect him.
And Jews are far more plentiful in the Democratic party and that’s how this all goes around.
The neocons are not going out of favour, they may take a hibernation period, however. That’s why attacking the Israel lobby, of which the neocons are an integral part, is far more efficient, because the neocons are essentially working on Likudnik policies.
Instead of going after the guard, you go after their mission. And thus cut not only them off, but their benefactors and expose them. I’m still stunned that nobody inside the left has pounced on Abe Foxman’s open admission that he’s “totally fine” with the Levy report. How much more evidence do you need to know that this man isn’t a civil rights activist as much as a hawkish Jewish macher.
Uh the Times was part of the neocon push for the invasion. Judy “I was fucking right” Miller for heavens sake. Don’t forget bloody Judy and those who allowed her WMD trash through without serious over sight. The New York Bloody Times did more than their share to sell that invasion.
Chris Matthews covered the Eichenwald piece last night. This exposure by the CIA along with former counter terrorism Richard Clarke’s statements in his book “Against all Enemies” where he exposes his efforts to have meetings with Condi “mushroom” Cloud Rice and Stephen “change those 15 words in Bush’s Cinci speech” Hadley. Rice and Hadley refused to meet with Clarke I believe until just days before the 9/11 attack. Clarke had wanted to specifically talk about Al Qeada, Bin Laden and plane attacks. No way can the Times cover their ass. The push for the Iran oops Iraq invasion is branded on it
RE: “From Kurt Eichenwald’s op-ed in the Times saying that the Bush White House was deaf to warnings from the CIA about imminent attack by Al Qaeda: ‘Weeks later, on June 22, [2001] the daily brief reported that Qaeda strikes could be ‘imminent’, although intelligence suggested the time frame was flexible’.” ~ Weiss
ALSO SEE: “Our Truth, and Theirs: What is a 9/11 ‘truther’?” ~ by Justin Raimondo, Antiwar.com, 9/12/12
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to original.antiwar.com
P.S. ALSO SEE: “The 11th Anniversary of 9/11″, by Paul Craig Roberts, Counterpunch, 9/11/12
ENTIRE COMMENTARY – link to counterpunch.org
Ari Fleischer is mising the point intentionallly again as his cohorts missed the warning intentionally and forced distraction on administration and then forced the connection between the distracted part ( terrorism ) to their cherished part ( Iraq and later other countries of ME) through media blitz of Judith Miller nature. The author here is simply saying the neocons forced the administartion to go down a route that was their dreams from at least 1991 and blocked the road that could have expsoed where and how Al Quida had been conspiring.
Ari Fleischer was and is a board member of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He was and is part of the group that
* Accused Obama of being a Muslim and lacking a proper birth certificate (started in 2007)
* Sent out over 28 million copies of the DVD of the controversial anti-Muslim film Obsession. At least part of the mailing was sent under the postal permit of Christians United for Israel, John Hagee’s CUFI, run by David Brog. [Erik Werth was producer of the film for the Clarion Fund, according to papers submitted to the IRS, although Castello Limited is who the Clarion Fund identifies as the producer. Werth was an appointee to the White House Security Review of secret service security.]
link to webcitation.org
link to prop1.org
* Sent the mailing out with former Israeli Ambassador to the US Danny Ayalon’s letter urging American Jews to align themselves with CUFI
link to jewsonfirst.org
David Frum is trying his familiar lines again that the pre-war intelligence were poor in Daily Beast in response to the words penned by Sullivan . David Frum will never get it.the intelligence were offered and the clues were offered and warning were mailed to the home of the responsible party but the neocons stopped the delivery . The warning were loud enough to wake up the half dead from their terminal inertia but the alarm was drowned by the cacopahny of the neocons over their tribal need to go after Saddam . 911 delivered them the fear -unceratinty-hate laden atmosphere in which they could force that drowning further to an abysaml level from whcih the country is now trying to recover.The neocons are throwing a collective fit.