6/27/2004
Anonymous Supports Preemption
Another of the tell-alls, purportedly devastating to the Bush Administration, has been published and is being sold.
On ABC's This Week, though, I heard something with which I agreed.
This is what I jotted for today's Rightsided Newsletter:
An anonymous officer with the CIA -- 22-year veteran of the CIA who occupies a senior position in counterterrorism -- is the author of a new book: Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terror. On TW, he appeared as a shadow, but his voice wasn't garbled. We learned that he had already written a book, so this was not motivated by an overwhelming need to "right the wrongs," as Dick Clarke and others claimed -- and that this book was approved with no edits by his superiors at the agency.
He spoke to Steph of a "lack of courage" -- "bureaucratic cowardice" -- amongst senior CIA officials. Asked about George Tenet, he vigorously asserted that Tenet was one of the good guys, with courage.
He said that they are afraid, when the evidence is not 100% conclusive but points very strongly at a danger, to say that "this is not the best evidence, but it's the best we have and we must act now to save thousands of lives." (That is a paraphrase from notes.)
Steph asked, "Even if we risk alienating our allies?" And "Even if we would risk alienating the Arab world?"
Yes and yes.
I'm going to stop reporting on "Anonymous" right there. Steph nodded his head in agreement at this straight talker, possibly thinking that he could set the Bush Administration straight. Whether Anonymous realizes it, whether Steph was able to connect the dots, he was talking about precisely what the President did in invading Iraq.
Preemption. The bureaucratic cowards of whom he writes could just as easily be Ted Kennedy, Nancy Pelosit… and JF Kerry, post-Howard Dean.
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