NYT: C.I.A. Officer Denounces Agency and Sept. 11 Report

[UpInArms]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/17/politics/17intel.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16 - A senior officer for the Central Intelligence Agency who led the unit that tracked Osama bin Laden has written a blistering letter to the Sept. 11 commission, attacking both the C.I.A. and the commission itself over what he sees as a failure to punish "bureaucratic cowards" in the intelligence agencies.

The officer, Michael F. Scheuer, has written a best-selling book under the pseudonym "Anonymous" that is sharply critical of the way the United States has pursued its global campaign against terrorism. In a signed e-mail letter sent to the Sept. 11 commission, he lashed out in angry and highly personal tones at the failure by the commission and the C.I.A. to hold anyone directly accountable for Sept. 11 failures and aimed sharp criticism at George J. Tenet, the former director of central intelligence, without mentioning his name. In the Sept. 11 commission's final report, "you never mention that the D.C.I. starved and is starving the bin Laden unit of officers while finding plenty of officers to staff his personal public relations office, as well as the staffs that handled diversity, multiculturalism, and employee newsletters," he wrote in a letter that was sent July 31. He also said that the United States gave short shrift to protecting American lives before the Sept. 11 attacks so that it could pursue the sale of fighter jets to an unnamed Arab government, which other officials identified as the United Arab Emirates.

Mr. Scheuer's e-mail, a copy of which was made available to The New York Times, was a dissenting note in what has otherwise been largely glowing reaction to the Sept. 11 commission's final report last month, which has set off broad debate about how best to restructure the intelligence community. His letter, which says restructuring is not the answer, is also extraordinary in that it comes from a current senior case officer at the C.I.A., where internal whistle-blowers are rare. From 1996 to 1999, he led the C.I.A. unit that tracked Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan and he continues to serve in a senior counterterrorism post.

...more...

[napi21]

1. Isn't the "blame" supposed to be in the second report that is to be

issued AFTER the Nov. elections? I don't know if they are going to blame it all on Tenet, but I sure got the impression that blame was to be in that second report.

BTW, I'm glad there are whistle blowers like this one. I only hope he is not seriously penalized for doing it.

[Zorra]

11. I may be wrong, but I believe that the 9/11 Commission is a wrap. But

the Senate report on the Intelligence failure in Iraq is part of a two phase review, which will no doubt be completed after the Nov. election.

Senate report cites CIA for ‘failures’ on Iraq
'Mischaracterization' of data on weapons of mass destruction
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 2:10 p.m. ET July 09, 2004
SNIP-----
The Senate report is the first part of a two-phase review, which at times polarized the usually bipartisan Intelligence Committee. Democrats wanted to see the investigation handled in a broad, single phase that would include other issues such as whether senior Bush administration officials misrepresented the analysis provided by the nation’s intelligence apparatus as they made the case for war.

Democratic senators reflected that concern in “alternative views” attached to the report. In one, Rockefeller, Levin and Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., claimed the report "paints an incomplete picture of what occurred during this period of time."

http://msnbc.msn.com/ID/5395999

[Cha]

2. The one lone guy who is making the most sense!

Definetly a voice in the wilderness!

Thank you,Michael F. Scheuer.

And al felzenber can shove it.

"A lot of people call and e-mail us with their thoughts," said Al Felzenberg, spokesman for the Sept. 11 commission. "Some people criticize us, some people praise us and we don't respond. The report is out there for the American people to judge. "

Well Michael F. Scheuer is an American people too!

[Rose Siding]

6. Except he ends up recommending total war

as the solution to terrorism- or, at the very least, heralds opening the discussion of total war. At least (and at most) he's critical of Bush.

http://www.matthewyglesias.com/archives/week_2004_06_20.html#003603

"I'm enough of a knee-jerk partisan that when I heard an anonymous important government official guy was about to publish a book arguing that George W. Bush was screwing everything up, I just assumed I would love it. I'm not enough of a knee-jerk partisan for that view to have survived this interview with Spencer Ackerman. Normally I welcome any intelligent and articulate contributions to the public discourse, but I'm not sure that putting a scorched earth strategy on the floor for debate is really the sort of thing the country needs. I also note, once again, that technically a scorched earth strategy entails destroying your own country, not that of the people you're fighting against, but we know what he means."

...............
The Ackerman interview-

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_06_20.php#003082

[Tight_rope]

7. No...not the only one...READ THIS: the original CIA whistleblower!

Open Letter To Thomas Kean – Chairman Of The 9/11 Commission - From FBI Whistleblower Sibel Edmonds
August 1, 2004

Thomas Kean, Chairman
National Committee on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States
301 7th Street, SW
Room 5125
Washington, DC 20407

Dear Chairman Kean:

It has been almost three years since the terrorist attacks on September 11; during which time we, the people, have been placed under a constant threat of terror and asked to exercise vigilance in our daily lives. Your commission, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, was created by law to investigate “facts and circumstances related to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001” and to “provide recommendations to safeguard against future acts of terrorism”, and has now issued its “9/11 Commission Report”. You are now asking us to pledge our support for this report, its recommendations, and implementation of these recommendations, with our trust and backing, our tax money, our security, and our lives. Unfortunately, I find your report seriously flawed in its failure to address serious intelligence issues that I am aware of, which have been confirmed, and which as a witness to the commission, I made you aware of. Thus, I must assume that other serious issues that I am not aware of were in the same manner omitted from your report. These omissions cast doubt on the validity of your report and therefore on its conclusions and recommendations. Considering what is at stake, our national security, we are entitled to demand answers to unanswered questions, and to ask for clarification of issues that were ignored and/or omitted from the report. I, Sibel Edmonds, a concerned American Citizen, a former FBI translator, a whistleblower, a witness for a United States Congressional investigation, a witness and a plaintiff for the Department of Justice Inspector General investigation, and a witness for your own 9/11 Commission investigation, request your answers to, and your public acknowledgement of, the following questions and issues: (It gets better...read more: -----------> http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0408/S00012.htm or http://www.911citizenswatch.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=373&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0)

[nolabels]

9. Sibel Edmonds factual references and details are traceable

She makes the case that this is what happened, this is who did it, these were the laws broken with probably a lot more she is not allowed to talk about. On the other hand this new guy waits a few years has fantastic story and no traceable links. Can you really see lumping her in with him?

[Tellurian]

3. So, what this intelligence officer is saying...

basically, there is a faction of (Bush employees aka) CIA that are salesman for the Bush/Cheney Cartel.

Like 2,000 James Bath employees, maybe more..

trickle down economics.

[Zorra]

4. Sibel Edmonds says some similar things:

In order to cure a problem, one must have an accurate diagnosis. In order to correctly diagnose a problem, one must consider and take into account all visible symptoms. Your Commission's investigations, hearings, and report have chosen not to consider many visible symptoms. I am emphasizing 'visible', because these symptoms have been long recognized by experts from the intelligence community and have been written about in the press. I am emphasizing 'visible' because the few specific symptoms I provided you with in this letter have been confirmed and publicly acknowledged. During its many hearings your commission chose not to ask the questions necessary to unveil the true symptoms of our failed intelligence system. Your Commission intentionally bypassed these severe symptoms, and chose not to include them in its five hundred and sixty seven-page report. Now, without a complete list of our failures pre 9/11, without a comprehensive examination of true symptoms that exist in our intelligence system, without assigning any accountability what so ever, and therefore, without a sound and reliable diagnosis, your commission is attempting to divert attention from the real problems, and to prescribe a cure through hasty and costly measures. It is like attempting to put a gold-lined expensive porcelain cap over a deeply decayed tooth with a rotten root, without first treating the root, and without first cleaning/shaving the infected tooth.

Respectfully,
Sibel D. Edmonds

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0802-06.htm

I'm glad that some of our Intelligence folks are speaking out, and I hope that Congress listens to them.

[nolabels]

5. I put my tin foil on

:tinfoilhat: Maybe I believe this guy, maybe I don't (but probably don't). It would only make sense to set up a guy like this to do interference. If he was really telling big time stuff that they didn't want him to let out, they would busted him a long time ago. Like about when they even had the first inkling of his book. Seems they would want us to believe he is some kind of Daniel Ellsberg or something. Yet the thing I notice he only really has Pseudo heat on his back

Lately I am having a big time problem trying to convince myself about a Osama bin Laden that masterminded all this. If you really look at it closely, it seems that even a few Osama bin Laden's would have hard time to do such a tight job without a lot of help. Just color me skeptical

On edit: damn buggy software

[tblue37]

8. Well, the CIA

has called him on the carpet and muzzled him. They permitted the book, but they consider his subsequent media appearances to be out of line because he goes too far and says too much.

[nolabels]

10. So they slapped his wrist and say bad boy?

I got to kind of think about that