November 05, 2003 -- 09:27 PM EDT
You've likely already seen or will soon see the story running in
several major news outlets this evening about apparent last minute
overtures that Iraq made to the US, looking for a deal just before the
outbreak of the war.
The story centers on an apparent back channel (or attempted back
channel) using a Lebanese-American businessman who had a relationship
with an analyst in Doug Feith's shop at the Pentagon, Michael Maloof.
(Richard Perle was part of the potential back channel too.)
In aftermath of 9/11, Maloof and David Wurmser were each part of a
two-man team tasked by the Pentagon with finding links between Shi'a
and Sunni extremist groups as well as between Islamist terrorists and
secular Arab regimes. They reported finding lots of evidence. But the
folks at the CIA never bought it.
Down deep in the New York Times article, there's this line contained
in a parantheses: "In May, Mr. Maloof, who has lost his security
clearances, was placed on paid administrative leave by the Pentagon."
There's your ripple.
And that's where I think you'll find a lot of the backstory for why
we're hearing now about this business with the last-minute overture.
To start getting a feel for that backstory, see this piece from Knight
Ridder's Warren Strobel from August 1st ("U.S. revokes security
clearance for Pentagon employee.")
This issue of security clearances and the revocation of security
clearances and investigations in the depths of the bureaucracy is an
important story of which we're only getting the vaguest hints.
Late Update: Let me be a bit more clear about what I'm getting at
here.
Let's say I'm a career defense bureaucrat struggling to get my
security clearances restored because it's very hard for me to be a
defense bureaucrat without them. And let's say one of the reasons I
can't get them restored is because of some unauthorized contacts I had
with a Lebanese-American businessman under investigation for running
guns to Liberia [i.e., Imad Hage, the main and almost sole source for
the NYT story]. And let's further add to the mix that my whole mess
with the security clearances is part of a larger struggle between
different factions in the national intelligence bureaucracy. Oh, and
one last thing: let's say I'm a protégé of Richard Perle.
Okay.
Now, if I'm on the line for these unauthorized contacts with the
gun-running businessman, wouldn't it be a lot harder to punish me for
it if it looked like that contact almost allowed me to secure a deal
that would have averted the need for war?
And if that's the case, wouldn't it be cool if my buddies and mentors
went to the press with the story of how I almost saved the day?
(And as long as we're on the subject, look at all the contradictions
between the Times' piece and Strobel's piece.)
-- Josh Marshall