[Dialogue] Emailing: The Forged Iraqi Letter What Just Happened - CommonDreams.org.htm

Wed Aug 6 21:11:07 EDT 2008

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Published on Wednesday, August 6, 2008 by The Huffington Post
<http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ron-suskind/the-forged-iraqi-letter-w_b_11705
6.html>  

The Forged Iraqi Letter: What Just Happened?

by Ron Suskind

What just happened? Evidence. A secret that has been judiciously kept for
five years just spilled out. All of what follows is new, never reported in
any way:

The Iraq Intelligence Chief, Tahir Jalil Habbush - a man still carrying with
$1 million reward for capture, the Jack of Diamonds in Bush's famous deck of
wanted men - has been America's secret source on Iraq. Starting in January
of 2003, with Blair and Bush watching, his secret reports began to flow to
officials on both sides of the Atlantic, saying that there were no WMD and
that Hussein was acting so odd because of fear that the Iranians would find
out he was a toothless tiger. The U.S. deep-sixed the intelligence report in
February, "resettled" Habbush to a safe house in Jordan during the invasion
and then paid him $5 million in what could only be considered hush money.

In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD - as Habbush
had foretold - the White House ordered the CIA to carry out a deception. The
mission: create a handwritten letter, dated July, 2001, from Habbush to
Saddam saying that Atta trained in Iraq before the attacks and the Saddam
was buying yellow cake for Niger with help from a "small team from the al
Qaeda organization."

The mission was carried out, the letter was created, popped up in Baghdad,
and roiled the global newcycles in December, 2003 (conning even venerable
journalists with Tom Brokaw). The mission is a statutory violation of the
charter of CIA, and amendments added in 1991, prohibiting CIA from
conduction disinformation campaigns on U.S. soil.

So, here we go again: the administration full attack mode, calling me names,
George Tenet is claiming he doesn't remember any such thing - just like he
couldn't remember "slam dunk" - and reporters are scratching their heads.
Everything in the book is on the record. Many sources. And so, we watch and
wait..

Pulitzer Prize-winner Ron Suskind is the author of The Way of the World
<http://www.amazon.com/dp/0061430625?tag=commondreams-20&camp=0&creative=0&l
inkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0061430625&adid=0GRZ32ZK7H6Y2SSVGRWX&> . See
http://www.ronsuskind.com

Copyright C 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

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49 Comments so far 

1.	

	formernadervoter August 6th, 2008 12:21 pm 

	Impeach.

2.	

	longingforsanity August 6th, 2008 12:23 pm 

	Impeach and prosecute.

3.	

	Galen August 6th, 2008 12:23 pm 

	Is *this* the evidence of 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors' needed to
bring down the organized criminal enterprise known to the world as the Bush
Administration?

	Is this what is needed to drag Bush and his entire cabal before the
War Crimes Tribunal of the International Criminal Court in the Hague? (And
yes, I know that the US is not signatory to the ICC. ore's the shame.)

	Time to take to the streets people.

4.	

	NewKassandra August 6th, 2008 12:30 pm 

	The american sheeple will never take to the streets in numbers large
enough to make a difference. They have been anesthetized by the television
to the point that they have no values anymore beyond their own front door.
Just as they will watch people lying in the street, dying, and not lend a
hand, so too will they allow criminals to run the country, and throw up
their hands declaring there's nothing they can do, it's not their problem,
their lives are fine. They have forgotten history, and forgotten how germany
fell so far, so fast.

5.	

	BillyD1953 August 6th, 2008 12:31 pm 

	Maybe we should skip impeachment and save time-just move directly to
treason and war crime trials. I was sickened yesterday by an NPR interview
of Ron Suskind. As with all other mainstream media they were more than
anxious to be very skeptical of his findings while acting as mere
stenographers and regurgitators for all the lies that BushCo has poured out
each day for nearly 8 years now. As soon as you impune the Administration
all these journalists suddenly remember what skepticism, cynicism and
investigative reporting are all about. But when money and power are doing
the talking they quickly return to being stenographers again. Makes me ill.

6.	

	petsr4ever07 August 6th, 2008 12:33 pm 

	Name the street. I'll be there.

7.	

	gus August 6th, 2008 12:33 pm 

	Like father, like son. George H.W. Bush used CREEP (Committe to
RE-Elect the President) money left over from his days as RNC chairman for
Nixon to pay the Iranians to keep our diplomats hostage in 1980. This was
done to ensure the election of the Reagan/Bush team. High treason, no
question about it.

	George W. Bush induced the fabricated letter to engage in a war
based on false premises. This was done to ensure his re-election, maintain
subservience to the Israel lobby, ensure Republican majorities in Congress,
grab oil, and other motives (pay bundles of money the Halliburton, whose
largest shareholder was/is Dick Cheney). Again, high treason, no question
about it.

8.	

	Galen August 6th, 2008 12:36 pm 

	Pets - How about Wall Street in New York?

9.	

	RichM August 6th, 2008 12:36 pm 

	If any leading Democrats were really opposed to Bush or US
militarism in any meaningful way, they'd be all over this - because Suskind
has great credibility to begin with, & is now explicitly saying he has hard
evidence of impeachable crimes. 

	But of course, we already know what the Democrats will do: they'll
pretend Suskind doesn't exist. In this way, they'll once again prove that
their real mission is protecting Bush & US militarism from public
examination.

10.	

	jlocke123 August 6th, 2008 12:37 pm 

	"a statutory violation of the charter of CIA"? Sounds bad, but what
can you do with executive branch law breaking?

	The Democrats can put this on the agenda of your next "not an
impeachment hearing" hearing, just as soon as they retroactively legalize
it. So many crimes, and only one Dennis Kucinich. Mind you, we don't want to
bind the hand of the next president, do we? Not when there are so many
countries left to invade.

11.	

	Galen August 6th, 2008 12:42 pm 

	With this 'revelation', does anyone here still REALISTICALLY think
there will be anything CLOSE to a 'democratic' election?

	Wanna bet there will be either more 'Diebold' vote fraud shenanigans
or another 'terrorist' event that just cancels the elections altogether?

12.	

	Mordechai Shiblikov August 6th, 2008 12:59 pm 

	Impeach, prosecute, convict, execute. Then, like Hitler, bury George
Wanker Bush under a gas station in the dead of night in some remote and
depressing "No Country for Old Men" shithole somewhere in what's left of
this nation. Don't tell anybody where the remains are, not even his family.
Even this is too good for this lying traitor, this Manchurian Candidate sent
here by Corporate America to annihilate the United States.

13.	

	bobsaysakombe August 6th, 2008 1:05 pm 

	I agree. Impeach Dubya and abolish the CIA. Reform the UN Security
Council (no more permanent vetoes) and cancel all third world timber/mining
concessions that originated from the colonization period. That would be a
good start.

	Multinational corps need to be heavily regulated and the weapons
producing countries must be held accountable for the results of their sales.

	Example: Is it moral for the US or our allies to sell weapons to
both sides in a civil war in DR Congo (Zaire) while our multinational mining
corps (or our allies') step up mining of Congo's wealth? This needs to be
illegal.

	From independence to the present what tiny percentage of the
billions of dollars in minerals that have left Congo made it into the hands
of the Congolese people? In some cases, zero percent! Some mining
concessions date back to Congo Free State and others to Mobutu's thievery.

	When all the colonializing powers relinquished political control of
the third world they did so under the conditions that they would not
relinquish economic control including unjust natural resource treaties and
concessions etc.

	Speaking of unfair treaties, the Iraqi Oil Laws and the Iraqi
Constitution, penned by Bush's stooges, serve as modern examples of what the
CIA is capable of doing in broad daylight. Pretty scary stuff. 

	Those Iraqi Oil laws are worth trillions of dollars to multinational
corporations!

14.	

	DaSparky August 6th, 2008 1:07 pm 

	Diebold, just last month, recieved exclusive rights to their ATM
machines in and around the Olympic Village in China. Payback or down
payment??

15.	

	luckylefty August 6th, 2008 1:29 pm 

	Mordechai, great idea but no strategy. You don't throw away the man
or the corpse - you trade him to the ICC for petrol and food. He should be
worth a bunch. The same but to a lesser degree with the heads of both Houses
of Congress and their Dim collaborators, the Supreme Court Justices, Colin
Powell, and the JCS. For starters. Then you hang the profiteers and
confiscate all their wealth, especially the arms merchants, KBR,
Hellsaburnin, Bechtel, et al. BUT 

	Truth is, 70+% don't even know there's a war and the balance
couldn't find the place on a map. It's the Empire thing. Ask a Freedman in
Rome where the Roman Legions were fighting at any given moment in time,
couldn't tell you, the News Readers lie any way. But he could tell you to
the dime what he can earn in a day and what the good bread costs. And when
Rome fell, those who could, got out, anywhere.

	Unfortunately, Krakatoa had an orgasm at about the same time and
made the planet so dark and cold that you couldn't grow food worth a damn
for what.several hundred years? And the Church of Rome by that point had
emptied the 1000 libraries of the Empire of 1500 years of science, history,
art, medicine, mathematics, and philosophy because, like now, they hate
books. Called them "Pagan". If you say it right it rhymes with Communist. 

	And of course, now the flow of the Gulf Stream's down by 30%. If it
stops, Northern Europe becomes an ice cube once again, nothing will grow
there, and people will be able to drive across the Channel, with snow tires.

	But, that's the next chapter and you wouldn't want to jump ahead,
would you. 

	For now, grab him, hold him, and begin negotiations for his sale. In
the meantime, he should have a direct experience of the "Enhanced
Interrogation Techniques" that he so widely admires. That's what he's done
to us already. We will be kind however, we'll use the same bent shrinks and
Mengalas to fuck him that he uses now. GWB after a month in hell should look
a site. Worth every penny.

16.	

	Clark Kent <http://www.dailyplanet.com>  August 6th, 2008 1:29 pm 

	Impeachment's too good for 'em. String 'em up!, following the
Nuremburg precedents.

17.	

	Doom n Gloom August 6th, 2008 1:30 pm 

	Suskind you idiot, you failed to have Paris Hilton endorse your book
and now it's headed to pinhead purgatory.

18.	

	RichM August 6th, 2008 1:30 pm 

	If Suskind is right in asserting he has solid proof of his claims,
there doesn't even have to be an "investigation" by Congress, since all the
work has already been done. Suskind is telling them exactly what happened,
and which persons can testify - with firsthand knowledge - that it happened.

	Ignoring Suskind's work - as the Democrats & the mainstream media
are undoubtedly going to do - amounts to willfully ignoring solid evidence
of horrific crimes. You have the corporate media & both parties
collaborating on keeping the truth hushed up. 

	That's the level we've sunk to. The truth means nothing any more.

	BillyD1953 (12:31 pm) writes ".I was sickened yesterday by an NPR
interview of Ron Suskind. As with all other mainstream media they were more
than anxious to be very skeptical of his findings while acting as mere
stenographers and regurgitators for all the lies that BushCo has poured
out.."

	- I didn't hear this particular interview, but we've all seen this -
and nothing BUT this - for years now. When you hear the MSM doing stuff like
this, you're hearing the corruption that rules American society, in real
time.

19.	

	AllTogetherNow... August 6th, 2008 1:38 pm 

	wall street.
labor day weekend?
tomorrow?

20.	

	rjmart01 August 6th, 2008 1:39 pm 

	Bread and circus.

21.	

	JH August 6th, 2008 1:51 pm 

	Just wait for the sound of crickets. The national outrage that
should be building to deafening proportions is non-existent. This story was
reported on NBC news, although with no sense of outrage to tinge the
narrative. I will bet that we've seen the total exposure this revelation is
going to receive. One news cycle. As a populace, we are asleep at the wheel.
Responsibility? Accountability? Do we care? Hah!

22.	

	rebelnow August 6th, 2008 1:55 pm 

	A good (and angry) article by Cindy Sheehan at Counterpunch.
www.counterpunch.com/sheehan08062008.html

23.	

	militantliberal August 6th, 2008 1:56 pm 

	"statutory violation of the charter of CIA"

	Ho-hum. Another Bush administration crime. Move along. Nothing
exciting to see here.

24.	

	bakunin August 6th, 2008 1:58 pm 

	There are two indispensable books for understanding what has
happened to this country in the last few decades. One is Robert Bryce's
"Cronies: How Texas Business became American Policy-and Brought Bush to
Power" and Kevin Phillips' "American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the
Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush." A careful reading of these two
books will help anyone who is confused about how and why democracy has been
undermined in recent years. The Bushes and their cohorts feel themselves
entitled and above the law and constitution, though of course they would
never say so. As long as the WASP ascendancy was in control here right
through WWII and for a while after that war, the Bushes and their class
cohorts could operate with impunity, but after the peoples' revolution here
in the 60's and 70's the right wing monied elite, now not only WASP but open
to recruits from other backgrounds organized a counter-revolution the end
result of which was inevitable-overthrow of the US constitution and
preparation for martial law. That is where we are at now, waiting for the
other shoe to drop in the form of a "terror attack" or a financial meltdown
or both.

25.	

	coyotebreath August 6th, 2008 2:04 pm 

	Regarding impeachment and criminal charges, we have to avoid a
situation that whoever takes office to complete Bush's second term is not
someone who could pardon Bush and company.

	I think impeach maybe, but hold off on criminal charges until
January 21, 2009.

	Those last minute pardons can be a bitch.

26.	

	cavedweller August 6th, 2008 2:07 pm 

	Suskind's book is another in a long list of works that show the
sadofascist Bush regime for what it is. But until We the People throw out
the Congressional weaklings who continue with the status quo of legalized
bribes from the corporations that really run things, nothing will change.
Maybe it's too late to be working through the electoral process. Perhaps
it's time, as others in this thread have said, to take to the streets. To
paraphrase Jefferson: If the government ceases to work for the people, the
people have a right to change it with any means possible.

27.	

	coyotebreath August 6th, 2008 2:21 pm 

	Based on the above, every soldier in uniform has the legal right
(some would say obligation) to lay down his/her arm and refuse to fight
further.

	The war is illegal so no one has to fight. No one SHOULD fight it.

	If you know anyone in uniform, tell them the news.

28.	

	jlocke123 August 6th, 2008 2:24 pm 

	RichM: "If any leading Democrats were really opposed to Bush or US
militarism in any meaningful way, they'd be all over this"

	This is a good point. It is, as Sherlock Holmes would say, the dog
that didn't bark. I watched a couple of Suskind interviews on youtube. No
sign of any Democrat response. Once again, despite evidence to the contrary,
in the absence of an opposition party, it is enough for George Tenet to say
that he can't recall anything and for the white house press secretary to go
after the whistle blowers.

29.	

	skidog August 6th, 2008 2:27 pm 

	The WAR CRIMINALS' plausable deniability just got less
plausable,which is a step forword-THANX Mr. Suskind.

	Condi Rice last wknd at our local music fest said (vis a vis
Iraq)"what really gets under my skin is when people say GWB wanted
WAR,because he didn't."

	Add that LIE to the 985 (documented)that the WAR PIGS used for the
IRAQI GENOCIDE.

	THE NOOSE is a TIGHT-ing!

30.	

	KCThompson August 6th, 2008 2:28 pm 

	Keith Olbermann had an interview with Suskind yesterday, where
Suskind laid out the case, and Olbermann expressed concern regarding the
charges..

	But who's going to do anything. Put pressure on your congressperson.
I think not. We can grouse and complain until the cows come home, but the
wrecking crew has effectively disengaged government from the people..

	What a shame, it could have been a nation of dreams come true, but
has instead been sold to the highest bidder..

	KCT

31.	

	overkill August 6th, 2008 2:36 pm 

	Maybe we should skip impeachment and save time-just move directly to
treason and war crime trials for all three branches.

32.	

	elmysterio August 6th, 2008 2:38 pm 

	The harsh reality is that Bush and Cheney could appear on national
television and confess all their crimes and NOTHING would happen to them
except maybe so negative press reports.

33.	

	skippyagogo41 August 6th, 2008 2:41 pm 

	Galen August 6th, 2008 12:42 pm 

	With this 'revelation', does anyone here still REALISTICALLY think
there will be anything CLOSE to a 'democratic' election?

	Wanna bet there will be either more 'Diebold' vote fraud shenanigans
or another 'terrorist' event that just cancels the elections altogether?

	We've gone over this before Galen, I won't bet in Cdn Funds, you'll
not accept Zimbabwe Dollars. I must admit it's quite strange to see a
totalitarian government like bush's allow such truth to be told. Usually
they arrest the malcontents like Suskind. Yet in this case, he's allowed to
talk. Most will never hear what he has to say, and those who do will not
allow their willful ignorance to be shaken. 

	I'd say a nuke strike on Iran will lead to a 'victory' for McCain,
unless McCain drops dead of a heart attack on the campaign trail and then
bush will be 'reelected' with a 75 percent approval rating.

34.	

	Ragdoll August 6th, 2008 2:41 pm 

	Yesterday I received a request for a donation from the Democratic
Party claiming it needs funds to combat McCain with regard to his
anticipated selection of a VP like the dangerous Cheney.

	I replied in all caps, "WHY INDEED HAVE YOU NOT IMPEACHED CHENEY?"

	No reply so far . . . .

35.	

	Ken Mitchell August 6th, 2008 2:50 pm 

	Jail to the chief.

36.	

	citizenblog <http://www.citizensnews.org>  August 6th, 2008 2:57 pm 

	Siskind is on National Public Radio Fresh Air radio program tonight.

37.	

	NMlib August 6th, 2008 3:26 pm 

	This just seems to provide more fodder for Bugliosi's argument.
Impeachment isn't enough!

38.	

	bryanD August 6th, 2008 3:58 pm 

	good work ron

	maybe some of the chickenshit yanks will finally see it is their own
psycho prez that's making them piss their pants with fear

39.	

	ezeflyer August 6th, 2008 4:19 pm 

	The CIA budget is 30 billion/yr.

40.	

	acutenecrotizingfasciitus August 6th, 2008 4:25 pm 

	Govorporation-it has too many tentacles w/ poisonous suckers for us
to do anything concrete to offset the corruption.

41.	

	Tsunami August 6th, 2008 4:49 pm 

	The surprise is, people seem surprise of this news.
It's common knowledge that every Dept. in the Federal Gov't. has been
tainted, or corrupted by this administrattion. It wouldn't surprise me if
Bin Laden is in secret protection with all amenities supplied by Bush.

42.	

	Scoppertop August 6th, 2008 4:57 pm 

	Impeach, no, Arrest as an Enemy Combatant without Habeas Corpus.

43.	

	Davey <http://resetnow.blogspot.com>  August 6th, 2008 5:18 pm 

	Impeach and imprison.

44.	

	zzz August 6th, 2008 5:57 pm 

	"In the fall of 2003, after the world learned there were no WMD - as
Habbush had foretold"

	How about, "as Iraq foretold in it's 12,000 page dossier submitted
to the UN prior to the war claiming it had no WMD's".

	"Hussein was acting so odd because of fear that the Iranians would
find out he was a toothless tiger. "
How was he acting odd? This insinuates that he was claiming to have WMD's or
at least create ambiguity. Nothing could be further from the truth. He
explicitly claimed not to have them. His claims were in the process of being
supported by the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq, which had to be removed
before their job was finished, so that we could invade.

45.	

	Coyotita August 6th, 2008 6:04 pm 

	While the the forces of good and evil are battling out in this
presidential campaign for this country's soul, we learn that dirty little
secret of the fake letter, and still our representatives in Washington do
not move promptly to get to the bottom of this in hearings we can all view.
Shame.

46.	

	freefallen August 6th, 2008 6:11 pm 

	Dear Mr. Suskind:

	1. What about the possibility that the forgery came from the White
House itself - perhaps Karl Rove, for example? Would that possibility not be
consistent with the current CIA denials? 

	2. Any idea if the former head of Iraqi intelligence was the one who
gave Tenet the tip (as reported by "Frontline"), about Saddam's supposed
location, that led President Bush to launch the bombing attack that started
the war sooner than he had intended? Or did this tip possibly come from
another part of the White House, perhaps VP Cheney's office?

	Both of the above questions have to do with exactly who was the
primary contact with the former head of Iraqi intelligence, the CIA or
someone in the White House?

47.	

	starkraving August 6th, 2008 6:30 pm 

	it says something about nations, and particularly the un-united
states, when it takes so long for the truth to emerge, longer for there to
be enough consensus to act on it and longest by far to finally get around to
administering appropriate justice. the slime from the slugs of time have so
clogged up our brains, we can for all practical purposes witness hellatious
atrocities and be so unmoved that it is as if nothing happened.

	shock and outrage fatigue, naturally leading to greater outrages.
nothing wrong with the faculties of perception except that they have become
compromised by a weak-to-nonexistant will.

48.	

	wsws.org website August 6th, 2008 7:33 pm 

	What is a suitable punishment for a war criminal?

	Many people, myself included, don't believe in capital punishment,
even for a war criminal.

	Back in 1961, when the Israelis captured Adolph Eichmann, I and a
friend of mine - who also doesn't believe in capital punishment - were
discussing what a suitable punishment should be for Adolph Eichmann.

	"He shouldn't be executed," my friend said, "because a.) I don't
believe in capital punishment, and b.) If he's executed, he would be a
'martyr' to any number of crazy people in the world."

	"What should be his punishment then?" I asked my friend. 

	"Put him in jail for life - with a loaded pistol. If and when he
realizes what he's done, he'll know what to do."

49.	

	wsws.org website August 6th, 2008 8:31 pm 

	cavedweller,

	re. your previous post in this thread -
This, from the Declaration of Independence:

	"But, when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing
invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
despotism, it is their right, it is their *duty,* to throw off such
government, and to provide new guards for their future security." (Asterisks
added.) 

	When I was in college, Dick Gregory came to our campus and, among
other things, quoted the above excerpt from the Declaration of Independence 

	Dick Gregory:
"What this says is that it is your duty, *your duty* to replace the
government. 

	"So I want you to go home and copy that part of the Declaration of
Independence. 

	"Come on, you're all college kids, you know how to copy!" 

	Interestingly enough, there's a monument in Washington (I think it's
at the Jefferson Memorial) that *leaves out* the part in the above quote
about it being we, the people's, duty to replace the government. That part
is omitted, and in its place is an ellipsis, three dots . 

	So, to be good and loyal Americans, let's simply play by the rules
set down by the Founding Fathers. 

	A revolutionary idea, I know. But, hey, I didn't make the rules!

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