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November 8, 2008 at 09:27:26
Promoted to Headline (H3) on 11/8/08: by Ray McGovern Page 1 of 3 page(s) |
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So I was amused while still in Kansas to get a call from Mike Caddell of "Radio Free Kansas" asking me for an interview. Broadcasting from rural northeastern Kansas, Caddell does his own part in spreading truth around and has garnered quite a respectable audience. Most of his fellow Kansans are malnourished on the right-wing media gruel that helps re-elect enablers like see-no-evil Republican Sen. Pat Roberts. As chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Roberts did President George W. Bush’s bidding by hiding the fact that the attack on Iraq was based on "false pretences." That’s the phrase used by current chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WVA) to describe the bogus intelligence used to "justify" the war, when he announced the bipartisan findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Caddell called me on Friday, expressing excitement at the beginning of daily intelligence briefings of President-Elect Barack Obama by the CIA. Aware that I helped prepare the President’s Daily Brief for Presidents Nixon and Ford, and that I conducted one-on-one PDB briefings of Reagan’s most senior advisers during the latter’s administration, Caddell asked me to tape a telephone interview to run on his show this weekend. He suggested that I focus on what I would tell President-Elect Barack Obama if I were Mike Morell, CIA’s Director of Intelligence, whom CIA Director Michael Hayden has assigned to brief Obama daily. What fun, I thought. On more sober reflection, it seemed more useful to prepare questions of the kind President-Elect Obama might wish to ask Morell, since the briefings are supposed to be a two-way street. Obama is no shrinking violet. Just the same, it may be useful to warn him not to succumb to the particular brand of "shock and awe" that can be induced by ostensibly sexy intelligence and color the reactions of briefees—even presidents. I have seen it happen.
The president-elect needs to start asking hard questions. Now.
Here are some he might want to select from for the next briefing:
1—The lead story in Friday’s New York Times undercuts the claims of Georgia’s President Mikheil Saakashvili that he was acting in self-defense when he ordered his troops to fire artillery and rockets at the city of Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia on the night of August 7-8. The Times’ information comes from international monitors of the highly respected Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe and, oddly, is much closer to the Russian version of what happened.
Task: A two page memo on who started the fighting and why
Deadline: Nov 12
2—As you are aware, a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) produced last November concluded that Iran’s work on the nuclear-weapons part of its nuclear development program was suspended in mid-2003. National Intelligence Council director, Thomas Fingar repeated that judgment publicly on Sept. 4, 2008.
I want to know how that squares—or doesn’t—with the claim by Norman Podhoretz, just hours after the NIE’s key judgments were made public, that Iran is "hell-bent on developing nuclear weapons," and why Podhoretz would go on to charge that the intelligence community was trying to "undermine George W. Bush." I notice, incidentally, that Defense Secretary Robert Gates has parroted Podhoretz’ "hell-bent" phraseology, and that your boss, Michael Hayden, has also publicly volunteered his "personal opinion" that this is so.
Task: A memo updating the judgments of the Nov. 07 NIE, as necessary
Deadline: Nov. 14
3—My aides have been telling me that, when speaking of the recent decrease in violence in Iraq, I have been mis-overestimating, so to speak, the success of the "surge" while mis-underestimating factors like the sectarian cleansing in Baghdad, the decision to pay Sunnis not to shoot at U.S. forces, and the decision by Muqtada al-Sadr to hold Shia fire pending the withdrawal of U.S. forces, which the Shia see as just a matter of time.
Task: A memo ranking the reasons for the downturn in violence in order of relative importance. It should address all these factors; it should also explain why the U.S. has several thousand more troops in Iraq now than were there before the insertion and subsequent withdrawal of our "surged" troops.
Deadline: Nov. 19
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Ray...
...why bother with all this gamesmanship? Why not just fire him on the spot? We haven't got time to play around with "does he or doesn't he?" He didn't. Next. by Richard Volaar (39 articles, 0 quicklinks, 151 diaries, 478 comments [63 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 8, 2008 at 9:56:36 AM  (0+)
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Reply: Richard
How about taking a step back and looking at the big picture here (apart from Mike Morell). Someone - Ray - who has intimate knowledge of these meetings is demonstrating that they are a two-way street. He offers not only specific questions that Obama should be asking right now but instructs him on how to assign a task to go with each question. He is showing our President-elect how to establish the tone for future briefings - whatever the issue of the day is and whomever the briefer might be. Believe it or not, articles posted on OpEdNews have actually made their way inside the beltway. by Cheryl Biren-Wright (30 articles, 41 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 485 comments [8 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 8, 2008 at 10:08:41 AM (0+)
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Reply: Ray's A Competent Analyst, No Question...
...my question still stands, however. If Obama doesn't want someone in the position he is in, why NOT terminate him on the spot? Why not put the residual neo-cons at DNI on notice with some "shock and awe" of his own? The less said, the better. Let CIA and DNI worry about what Obama does and does not know. The amount of intelligence online is enormous, so there's no telling who the source is/was, or how deep the analysis goes. Maybe we don't need a formalized centralized intelligence...or a national security state. How DNI responds to the severity and speed of Obama's decision will tell Obama and Emmanuel all they need to know about what needs to happen at DNI, CIA, DIA and DHS. If DNI circles their wagons, they're either stupid or they think they can rule the roost. Either way it's time to clean house, perhaps undoing the stupid DHS bureaucracy that Bush invented. If DNI anticipates the reasons why and what-for and sends someone to the West Wing who can walk and chew gum at the same time, somebody has their head screwed on straight and can be used, perhaps even trusted, to clean house and get rid of DHS. Not to belabor the point, but DHS is a bs organization with a bs mandate based on a pack of self-serving lies. Particularly with the games the Israeli right wing is playing with Russia and Syria, we don't need them dictating policy to the Whitehouse any longer. They're out of their friggin's skulls over there and they had, and have, no business screwing with Russia in the first place. Personally, it wouldn't break my heart if we joined forces with Iran to take the heat off of Israel and then went after the Saudis (and the Bush Family). The storyline of 911 that Obama seems so in love with more than justifies that tack. We could probably get Iran to keep using dollars to buy oil, too, which would save our bacon for another time. Iran could use a progressive influence...using cranes to publically hang people for breaking Shariah Law is piss ignorant. Turning the tables on the Sunnis would probably quiet down the Taliban, or lessen their influence in Pakistan. Better to keep nuclear Pakistan in the pink than allowing the Taliban to run roughshod over the countryside. There are things that can be done in the world by the US with the political capital we just earned by getting Barak Hussein Obama elected as president. It may not change much domestically, but, internationally, we just struck gold. by Richard Volaar (39 articles, 0 quicklinks, 151 diaries, 478 comments [63 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 12:28:02 AM (0+)
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Write on!!!
This former insider view is incisive, relevant and just what the doctor ordered. Keep up the great work!!!! by jeff rock (10 articles, 1 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 187 comments [68 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 8, 2008 at 10:59:27 AM (0+)
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BRING IT ON
Although we all (should) understand the need for secrecy in fighting a war, even one that we started for questionable reasons, it was disheartening, to say the least, to learn that our newly elected, leader-of-change-and-hope, Mr. Obama, could not even answer in the most general terms a general question about how his new, top secret de-briefings by the intelligence community effect his view and understanding of our foreign policy. So much for transparency and the ability of a newly elected president to get us out of that war started by the military industrial complex. That we continue to put up with this catch 22, year after year, fighting a war that cannot be explained to us in terms other than "one we cannot afford to lose", a war being fought for such "secret", un-talked about reasons, is truly disgraceful. It makes one wonder that there must be some truth to Ben Fulford (see YouTube,"Fulford and Rockefeller interview") who asserts that once you reach/achieve a certain level in the pyramid of power, you will be given a certain option to join the forces who are already there or be assasinated, as was the case with JFK? For REAL CHANGE we need REAL INVESTIGATIONS into 9/11 and the WHITE PAPER report the much respected Mr Bugliosi refers to in his new book, "The Prosecution of President Bush for Murder". To coin a phrase from our macho, chickenhawk, super tough guy, bully president, who was born on third base thinking he hit a triple, "Let's Roll." by Nick van Nes (1 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 596 comments [150 recommended, 1 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 8, 2008 at 11:26:11 AM (0+)
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Putting the "intelligence" back into "agency"
Mr.McGovern, Again, well placed, and gives me hope to know that at least at one time there were honest, professional intelligence agents working on our behalf. And I certainly have my hopes that Pres-Elt. Obama somehow receives this message and puts forth these questions and a few more on even darker matters, but for now any progress would be welcome. And it certainly would go a long, long way in alleviating some suspicions lingering as to just how committed our new president is to getting at the truth. If history was to our judge, I'm not holding out much hope, but I'm not closed to surprises. He might want to tell that Himmler-looking wannabe Hayden to hit the bricks too. by Mr M (8 articles, 0 quicklinks, 66 diaries, 2845 comments [654 recommended, 27 rejected]) on Saturday, Nov 8, 2008 at 6:35:55 PM (0+)
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Thank you for writing this!
I am a Kansan and a fan of Mike Cadell and we appreciate your attentions as many people of the progressive persuasion view us as a great wasteland. There may be some things wrong with Kansas but Mike Cadell is not one of them. He may be found at www.fightincockflyer with links to many of his interviews and opinions as well as to other Progressive blogs. by Mary Pitt (77 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 282 comments [11 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 2:53:41 PM (0+)
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radio interview
You can listen to Ray McGovern's interview with Mike Cadell here . by Cheryl Biren-Wright (30 articles, 41 quicklinks, 8 diaries, 485 comments [8 recommended, 2 rejected]) on Sunday, Nov 9, 2008 at 4:19:06 PM (0+)
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A Modest List of Requests for Pres. Elect Obama
Ray, Great article. Thought you might like my latest 150 word poem in the Daily Times Sunday. A Modest List of Requests - Shelton F. Lankford The people have spoken, Obama’s the man The country’s in trouble, hope you have a plan To unite the nation and pay down our debt To win back the prestige the neo-cons let Slip away in the wake of imperial acts And wars justified by ignoring the facts. I would also request that you pay some attention To our constitution, and may I just mention The practice of torture, It doesn’t become us The Patriot Act was a breach of a promise To us and our kids not to spy on our lives So preserve us our rights, those few that survive. For a modern election your margin was great Bring the rule of law back, say it isn’t too late You’re taking the helm of a ship that might sink You may well need everyone’s help, don’cha think? Oh, and make sure Dick Cheney winds up in the clink. I hope you are doing well. SFL by Maturin42 (5 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 19 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Nov 10, 2008 at 12:01:37 PM (0+)
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