# Karen Kwiatkowski blows the lid on the Defense Department

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-kwiatkowski-blows-the-lid-on-the-defense-department/233426>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [March 10, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-kwiatkowski-blows-the-lid-on-the-defense-department/233426 "2004-03-10T04:38:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-kwiatkowski-blows-the-lid-on-the-defense-department/233426/1 "2004-03-10T04:38:21Z")

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A little hyperbolic to call this the new Pentagon Papers, but definately some food for thought:  
[http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp/index.html](http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp/index.html)

She observed firsthand the formation and operation of the Office of Special Plans, and describes exactly how intelligence got suppresed, twisted, invented, and used to manipulate the American public.

Her conclusion:

> [@](#):
>
> War is generally crafted and pursued for political reasons, but the reasons given to the Congress and to the American people for this one were inaccurate and so misleading as to be false. Moreover, they were false by design. Certainly, the neoconservatives never bothered to sell the rest of the country on the real reasons for occupation of Iraq – more bases from which to flex U.S. muscle with Syria and Iran, and better positioning for the inevitable fall of the regional ruling sheikdoms. Maintaining OPEC on a dollar track and not a euro and fulfilling a half-baked imperial vision also played a role. These more accurate reasons for invading and occupying could have been argued on their merits – an angry and aggressive U.S. population might indeed have supported the war and occupation for those reasons. But Americans didn’t get the chance for an honest debate.

Certainly, we’ve heard that before, but she’s backed it up with direct observations of how the process worked: and how it got corrupted. She also notes that the commission Bush has set up to examine intelligence failures “specifically excludes an examination of the role of the Office of Special Plans and other executive advisory bodies” which she claims are the real source of the problem, making the commission not only an administrative rubber stamp, but also one that’s by design commanded to knowingly look in the wrong place.

Some of the anonymous blog she wrote while there, in which she gripes about profound contempt in which many of hte big players in this game held the military (so much for the soldier loving patriots)  
[http://www.sftt.org/dt037.html](http://www.sftt.org/dt037.html)

Anyway, let’s get to our own vetting of her claims and opinions. fisk!

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**Author:** ![PatriotX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c4cdca/32.png) [@PatriotX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotX)\
**Post date:** [March 10, 2004, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/karen-kwiatkowski-blows-the-lid-on-the-defense-department/233426/2 "2004-03-10T23:54:49Z")

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[Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=241610&highlight=kwiatowski) elswhere [on the SDMB](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=199309&page=1&pp=50&highlight=office+special+plans)