Feith to get more scrutiny

November 18, 2005

Gen. Tommy Franks once described former Undersecretary of Defense Douglas Feith “the f***ing stupidest guy on the face of the earth.” More recently, Larry Wilkerson, Colin Powell’s chief of staff at the State Department, said of Feith, “Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man.”

But now we can call Feith something else: under investigation by the Pentagon.

The Pentagon’s inspector general has agreed to review the prewar intelligence activities of former U.S. defense undersecretary Douglas J. Feith, a main architect of the Iraq war, congressional officials said yesterday. […]

Democrats have accused Feith of manipulating information from sources including Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi to suggest links between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda network, which masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Bush and other top administration officials cited alleged ties between Iraq and al Qaeda as a justification for military action. The Sept. 11 commission reported that no collaborative relationship existed between the two.

The inspector general’s office informed the Senate on Oct. 19 that it would undertake the review.

To be sure, there’ll be plenty for the inspector general to look at. It was Feith, for example, who led the Pentagon’s Office of Strategic Influence, which was responsible for planting false stories in the foreign press and running other covert activities to manipulate public opinion. It was also Feith who pushed the White House to make WMD the principal rationale for the war in Iraq; it was his office that was in charge of Iraq’s military prisons (you know, the ones where innocent Iraqis were raped, tortured, and killed); it was Feith who encouraged the administration to abandon the Geneva Conventions; and it was Feith who was meeting regularly with Ahmed Chalabi. (My personal favorite was when Feith developed a plan to attack South America after 9/11 because Afghanistan lacked attractive military targets.)

And while I’m pleased to see that the Pentagon’s inspector general will review Feith’s “intelligence activities,” isn’t Congress the body that should also be reviewing this kind of issue? Maybe the infamous Phase II of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigation, the part that’s supposed to review how the administration used faulty intelligence on Iraq but has consistently been delayed by Senate Republicans, could do a little follow up.

It will be hard for them to leave this out of the Phase II now. And it’s certainly going to be harder to demonize people with questions about policy.

I imagine the weasels in Feith’s office will rat on each other once the inspector shows up. And I could see Feith ratting on some big names to stay out of trouble.

  • “Operation Iraqi Freedom has so far eliminated a safe haven for terrorism in Iraq, eliminated a source of financial support for terrorists…eliminated a possible source of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons, technology, material or training for terrorists.”

    That was Doug Feith, speaking at the University of Chicago in April 2004.

    Stupidest man alive . . .

  • Can you say, fall guy? Looking into Feith is a start, but he alone could do no damage. Any investigation must look at Feith in the context of the administration. For the moment I am skeptical that this will happen.

  • Rege, it’s easy to imagine Feith being blamed by his subordinates, and in turn blaming his superiors to stay out of jail. That would mean plenty of opportunities to investigate up the food chain.

  • Owen, in an honest investigation that is exactly what you would expect. My concern is that it will be a rigged investigation. As I said I am skeptical, but it worth keeping an eye on to see how it plays out.

  • Feith may be stupid in the extreme, but he’s a good representation of the overall incompetence and idiocy of the neocons.

    I’ve pretty much decided that there never will be a proper investigation of the Iraq debacle until Bush leaves office. However, the press is showing signs of conducting its own investigation, which may be more effective and timely.

  • While looking into what authority and independence the Pentagon inspector general has, I saw this:

    “Sen. Pat Roberts of Kansas, Republican chairman of the Senate intelligence committee, asked the Pentagon’s inspector general to look into the activities of Feith’s office after officials stopped cooperating with a Senate probe of prewar intelligence on Iraq.” http://alliance-for-a-better-california.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/10/02711/329

    So I guess this is part of the mythical Phase II Senate thingy. Although this sheds no light on how independent the inspector can or will be.

  • Douglas Feith is an uber-Zionist. His profile in the New Yorker reveals him to be unrepentant extremist. Link here: http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/050509fa_fact .

    He even has an the prominent photo of a Zionist founder in the den of his home: “A black-and-white portrait of Theodore Herzl, the founder of Zionism, hangs over a green leather couch.”

    Spy Jonathan Pollard would be proud. Richard Perle et al are traitorous because the don’t put America first!

    No more American blood for the the “higher purpose” of Israel.

    P.S. — Because I place American goals above those of Israel, I am NOT anti-Semitic.

  • Nor am I anti-semitic, anti-zionist is another matter altogether though.

    This cabal, if not convicted for war crimes, creating a holocaust on innocent Iraqis and Ameicans and war-profiteering, should at least be delivered to the streets of Bhagdad, where they’d get immediate justice. This time without our military there as human shields for their criminal acts.

    Why, I wonder does our media fail again to expose the “REAL ENEMY” hiding in our midst. I will write to CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN (forget FOX) and to the many nightly news shows and demand, as you all should, that this be investigated. NOW!

    Keeping up the pressure now is critical!

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