A report from the Pentagon's Inspector General used the word "dubious" to describe the intelligence provided by Douglas Feith, an neocon who served as Undersecretary of Defense. Feith basically substituted the political agenda of George Bush for the work of the U.S. intelligence community as he tried to manufacture links between al Qaeda and Iraq. So much of what we all need to know about the Bush Administration is summed up in the response from Feith to The Washington Post:
In a telephone interview yesterday, Feith emphasized the inspector general's conclusion that his actions, described in the report as "inappropriate," were not unlawful.Inappropriate, not unlawful. Tell that to the families of dead soldiers here or any of the Iraqis who've lost family members.
The new standard for the Bush team is, hey, we didn't break the law, we just lied and manipulated evidence so we'd go to war with Iraq -- without a plan. Senator Carl Levin has a more apt description:
"The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration's decision to invade Iraq," Levin said yesterday. "The inspector general's report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war."Now, that's an accurate assessment.
