Pentagon Office of Special Plans (OSP): What's the Deal?

Great Debates
61

He was handpicked for his ability to lie like a rug, exactly like all the other members of the council. Don’t forget that elections have been absolutely suspended in Iraq until further notice. This is no democracy. Then again, the recent actions of America make a mockery of true democratic principle, so it’s all a matter of perspective.

What’s more important about any particular office of intelligence anyway, when collectively they admit regularly that they haven’t a clue. No wonder if their main sources of information are sycophants absolutely besmitten by the idea of a corporate crime syndicate in charge of Iraq’s oil. After all , if they back the American with enough credibility to be recorded, they receive places closer to the trough in return.

Animal Farm all over again.

Amazing how people are still grasping at any fleeting mention of magic Iraqi WMD’s like drowning men grasping at straws.
PT Barnum was wrong…it’s 1,000 a minute.

62

Col al-Dabbagh, who was recalled to Baghdad to work at Iraq’s air defence headquarters during the war itself, believes that the WMD have been hidden at secret locations by the Fedayeen and are still in Iraq. “Only when Saddam is caught will people talk about these weapons,” he said.

Now, we’ll see.

I hope solid evidence that Hussein was arming Qaeda w/ banned weapons for use against the US comes to light now.

63

Which they didn’t use? Out of deference to our feelings, perhaps?

64

I’ve been getting quite a few more google alerts abut the OSP these days. The “It’s the CIA’s fault,” tactic is bringing it out I suppose.

Re: Col. al-Dabbagh

Re the OSP in the news:

This sort of thing, when combined with what apparently is carefully crafted, technically correct language in vogue in DC these days, (see Kay Testimony and DCI Tenets remarks re “imminent threat”), makes it look like very fishy goings on.

Maybe someone else sees it other wise?

65

I wonder if that tactic is what’s behind today’s reheating of the Plame investigation? The investigation there could open a big crack in the OSP’s armor:

At antiwar.com
-Sorry for the crappy link, but this seems like exactly the sort of skeleton Tenet might pull from the closet in order to fend off a hostile WMD investigation.

66

Let’s take a close look at this.

An agency that effectively exercised the directive to manufacture a reason for war by the administration…

That’s a potent administration and a potent agency.

Yet, we’re supposed to believe that this same agency and administration is incapable of planting chemical weapons, or even an entire chemical weapons program in Iraq?

I don’t buy it.

There must be a counter-intelligence reason for not planting chemical weapons in Iraq, or for reporting that chemical weapons are not in Iraq.

My guess is to give the perception to the population that we have a press that is not restrictively manufactured by their intelligence agencies themselves – while still being able to appropriate action that the population doesn’t agree with – to condition people to accepting that “this is the price that must be paid for liberty”.

Another aspect of this pattern that was strong during this administration were the “Infamous CEO” stories, where people get lambasted by the press, but through ‘complex’ court rulings, that are the price we pay for liberty, they are allowed to walk off with hundreds of millions. To condition the population that this is the price to be paid for liberty. Then they go off into obscurity, able to use this mal-appropriated money as non-public black ops funds against the public, secured by the intelligence agencies, owned by the wealthy, in order to secure the very inequity that still exists.

That would be my “pet theory” of what the counter-intelligence idea is that emerged from game theory as of late.

67

Come to think of it, the entire election coverage of this administration had the same effect. I think the same game theory principle has been applied from the election coverage through all of the news coverage during the course of this administration. The election coverage seemed to be about the same theme, “for better or worse this is the price we pay for freedom” or even moreso “your vote actually counts” which was witnessed through the repeated coverage of “careful chad analysis”… and even further, how the administration is seeking to impliment more advanced technology to make it easier to see who you’re voting for. By pumping this message, it avoids the issue of whether the vote is meaningfully used to elect an official.

To get around the problem of someone observing this, we need coverage of intelligence incompetence to give a sense of transparency in the media, an aknowledgement of a problem that our country is looking to fix; and the idea that our intelligence agency isn’t nearly organized enough to manufacture elections – as is evidenced by the repeated senate hearings and press conferences on intelligence agency reform from this bungling network of people that can’t even keep secrets because of intelligence agency “whistle blowers”, which also recieved high press coverage.

68

Even more along the lines of this pattern is the use of the press to reveal that editors of other networks or press conglomerates have killed stories that “seemed detrimental to the “conservative cause”” (whatever that means). By doing this, the public is coerced into believing that even editorial censorship is exposed, and that if you really get into your press phenomenon as a whole, you will find that there is endless transparency, that no stone goes unturned, and that if you disagree, you simply aren’t reading enough press coverage. All of this phenomenon was very prevailant during this administration, ironically even before the administration came into office, which suggests to me that the counter-intelligence in this country transcends election, and is itself an arm of inequitable wealth distribution protection, misdirection and apologetics – owned by those people.

“Special interest” has become the new press euphamism for “oppressive money grubbers”.
“Liberty” has become a euphamism for “unconsented inequitable distribution of wealth amongst a population of human beings”.

69

Threads woven for future Dopers who arrive at this post through the search function

I hope I’m wrong, but AFAICT, of the several investigation by various legislative, executive bodies, there’s only one investigation into the WH’s use of the intelligence on Iraq to sell the war to the US electorate and the Congress. That is the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s investigation.

CHAIRMAN ROBERTS AND VICE CHAIRMAN ROCKEFELLER ISSUE STATEMENT ON INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE’S REVIEW OF PRE WAR INTELLIGENCE IN IRAQ
February 12, 2004

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Senator Pat Roberts (R-KS), Chairman, and Senator Jay Rockefeller IV (D-WV), Vice Chairman, of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, today announced that the Committee unanimously agreed to refine the terms of reference of the Committee’s ongoing inquiry into pre war intelligence with regard to Iraq. The new terms are as follows:

A. The matters set forth in the joint release of the Chairman and Vice Chairman on June 20, 2003:

1. the quantity and quality of U.S. intelligence on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction programs, ties to terrorist groups, Saddam Hussein’s threat to stability and security in the region, and his repression of his own people;

2. the objectivity, reasonableness, independence, and accuracy of the judgments reached by the Intelligence Community;

3. whether those judgments were properly disseminated to policy makers in the Executive Branch and Congress;

4. whether any influence was brought to bear on anyone to shape their analysis to support policy objectives; and

5. other issues we mutually identify in the course of the Committee’s review;

B. the collection of intelligence on Iraq from the end of the Gulf War to the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom;

C. whether public statements and reports and testimony regarding Iraq by U.S. Government officials made between the Gulf War period and the commencement of Operation Iraqi Freedom were substantiated by intelligence information;

D. the postwar findings about Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction and weapons programs and links to terrorism and how they compare with prewar assessments;

E. prewar intelligence assessments about postwar Iraq;

F. **any intelligence activities relating to Iraq conducted by the Policy Counterterrorism Evaluation Group (PCTEG) and the *Office of Special Plans ** * within the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and

G. the use by the Intelligence Community of information provided by the Iraqi National Congress (INC).
[the INC’s Information Collection Program (ICP)]

Rumsfeld and others have publicly denied that the OSP and the PCTEG ever gathered or collected intelligence. This denial notably doesn’t address the allegations raised that these units selectively extracted, “cherry picked,” items from raw intelligence reports gathered by other agencies, to make the case for the invasion of Iraq. Allegations that on more than one occasion, items that had been previously determined to be dubious or outright false were picked from the raw intel reports and presented to Congress, and via the WH, the electorate.

Rumsfeld has also denied that the OSP and the PCTEG “bypassed” DCI Tenet.
Compare this quote from the CIA’s intel factbook re the Intelligence Community, “…offices within the Department of Defense for collection of specialized national foreign intelligence through reconnaissance programs…” with the statements from Pentagon officials denying that either of the two groups gathered or collected intelligence.
The OSP and PCTEG are not members of the intelligence community, therefore not obligated to report to Tenet. The intelligence community was not on the route, and therefore could not possibly be “bypassed.”

70

‘Very Damning’ Report: Pentagon Manipulated Pre-war Intel

Here’s the unclassified summary of the report:
Unclassified Executive Summary from (Classified) Report No. 07-INTEL-4 “Review of Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy” (pdf 239kb)

And today’s senate testimony:
DoD Inspector General Briefing on Report No. 07-INTEL-4 “Review of Pre-Iraqi War Activities of the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy” (pdf 466kb)

http://www.dodig.osd.mil/pressroom.htm

71

But it wasn’t illegal! O, blessed vindication! When *will * the lefties stop hating America?

72

Zombie threads are typically locked as soon as a mod takes notice, so I’ve started a new thread to continue the discussion.

73

Salon did a big article about it in 2004.

http://dir.salon.com/story/opinion/feature/2004/03/10/osp_moveon/index.html

74

Mother Jones and MoveOn were all over this story. If you go through the archives at Mother Jones there are lots of articles.

75

If you look at the post dates, it’s a double zombie thread, at least.

76

:eek: Good Og! A Jason thread!!!

77

Why not let them decide what their job is here BG?

Our Republican congress’ dereliction of duty is what stretched this issue out so long. Chopping up the discussion into little discrete bits only serves to bolster their evil designs.

78

On the other hand, a thread that goes back well over three years invites unwary posters to attack posters who are no longer here as well as citing links that might werll be dead.

The topic is very pertinent, tooday, but it would be better served by a new thread with a link to this thread or posts within this thread.

This thread is closed.

[/ Moderating ]