Forget about the shadowy whatevers that Bush is talking about because the seriously shadowy business is going on right under his nose. Let's remember that this guy is promoting himself as a strong leader in times of trouble yet he's taken us into a war in Iraq that is a complete mess with no end in sight and he has rogue teams and moles operating in the Pentagon under his watch. The new Washington Monthly article "Iran-Contra II?" sheds new light on a few facts that have been previously dismissed by Rummy and others. Who's buying the "chance encounter" nonsense story? These people have zero credibility left.
...the FBI is looking with renewed interest at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers in Feith's office, which more-senior
administration officials first tried in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up.
The administration's reluctance to disclose these details seems clear: the DoD-Ghorbanifar meetings suggest the possibility that a rogue faction at the Pentagon was trying to work outside normal US foreign policy channels to advance a "regime change" agenda not approved by the president's foreign policy principals or even the president himself.
The Agency believes Ghorbanifar is a serial "fabricator" and forbids its officers from having anything to do with him. Moreover, why were mid-level Pentagon officials organizing meetings with a foreign intelligence agency behind the back of the CIA -- a clear breach of US government protocol?
Newsday broke the original story about the secret Ghorbanifar channel. Faced with the disclosure, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld acknowledged the December, 2001 meeting but dismissed it as routine and unimportant. Later that day, another senior Defense official acknowledged the second meeting, in Paris, June, 2003, but insisted that it was the result of a "chance encounter" between Ghorbanifar and a Pentagon official.
