[lbo-talk] Cooking the intelligence redux?

Michael Pollak mpollak at panix.com
Tue Jan 9 08:08:47 PST 2007


[More links at original]

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2007/Intelligence_officials_believe_White_House_chose_0108.html

January 8, 2007 The Raw Story.com

Officials believe White House chose new Intelligence chief in effort

to darken Iran Intelligence Estimate, broaden domestic surveillance

Larisa Alexandrovna

The nomination of retired Vice Admiral John Michael "Mike" McConnell

to be Director of National Intelligence is part of an effort by the

Vice President to tighten the Administrations grip on domestic

intelligence and grease the wheels for a more aggressive stance

towards Iran, current and former intelligence officials believe.

If confirmed, McConnell will replace current National Intelligence

Director John Negroponte, who was tapped Friday to become Deputy

Secretary of State under Secretary Condoleezza Rice. According to

officials who spoke on condition of anonymity, Negropontes exit

followed a lengthy internal administration battle between the Office

of the Vice President and the two-year-old Office of the Director of

National Intelligence.

According to officials close to both men, two issues surround

Negropontes departure and McConnells nomination: a forthcoming

National Intelligence Estimate on Iran which the White House could use

to buttress a case for military force and pressure from the Vice

President to augment domestic surveillance.

Negroponte had resisted both efforts. Tensions soared after Negroponte

made a public statement last year that countered the administration

position that Iran was an immediate threat and that its alleged

nuclear weapons program was in an advanced stage.

The NIE on Iran is at issue, said one former senior intelligence

officer close to Negroponte.

The National Intelligence Estimate is an interagency report that

synthesizes information across all intelligence agencies on a

particular topic, providing an overall assessment and analysis.

<snip>

Parts of an earlier Iran Intelligence Estimate were leaked to the

Washington Post in 2005. These excerpts asserted that Iran was at

least ten years away from possessing any significant nuclear

enrichment capability and contrasted sharply with White House

estimates, which had warned Iran could mount a full-scale attack in

3-5 years.

The carefully hedged assessments, which represent consensus among U.S.

intelligence agencies, contrast with forceful public statements by the

White House, the Posts Dafna Linzer reported. Administration officials

have asserted, but have not offered proof, that Tehran is moving

determinedly toward a nuclear arsenal.

Negroponte defended the published findings, attempting to push back

against pressure from the Vice Presidents office, and maintained his

opposition to military action against Iran.

By March 2006, however, the Department of Defense on orders from the

Vice Presidents Office had created the Iranian Directorate, which was

largely a recreation of the notorious Office of Special Plans. The

Office of Special Plans operated in the build-up to the Iraq war and

is believed by most experts to have been the conduit through which

pre-Iraq war intelligence was allegedly manipulated, if not cooked

outright.

In a previous RAW STORY article on the Iranian Directorate, John Pike

of Global Security a Washington-based intelligence clearinghouse said,

It was created to, as Dean Acheson urged Harry Truman, to scare hell

out of the American people by making things a little bit clearer than

the truth.

The creation of the Iran Directorate sharply undercut the Director of

National Intelligence and what sources say were Negropontes efforts to

collect the most comprehensive and accurate intelligence on Iran and

provide it directly to the President. The Office was created in 2005

by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act to centralize

information coming out of all 16 US intelligence agencies, including

the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Central Intelligence Agency

(CIA), and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

According to officials, Negroponte, while trying to work around

interagency tensions, was not given the requisite authority to

override pressure from Cheneys office.

In October, Negroponte publicly cautioned against the use of force

with regard to Iran, telling President Bush that because of technical

errors in Iran's nuclear program, the situation was not an emergency.

Domestic Surveillance

The other key area of concern for the intelligence community in

McConnells nomination is the Executive Branchs attempt to expand

domestic surveillance programs, especially those conducted by the

National Security Agency.

Current and former intelligence officials say that Negroponte and his

staff were not comfortable with the level of domestic surveillance or

the use of NSA wiretaps that were being pushed by the White House.

[The office of the Vice President] could not get Negroponte to do

anything with NSA and domestic surveillance, said one former senior

intelligence official. McConnell worked with Cheney during the Gulf

War.

He is not competent, but he is someone they can control, the official

added.

<end except>

Michael



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