NY Times: 15 Years Late on Iraq

On Thursday July 16, The NY Times posted “Colin Powell Still Wants Answers”, a long article by Robert Draper to appear in this Sunday’s NYT Magazine. The article is based on Draper’s upcoming book, “To Start a War: How the Bush Administration Took America Into Iraq”.  ( See: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/16/magazine/colin-powell-iraq-war.html  )

Google Books calls it “the definitive, revelatory reckoning with arguably the most consequential decision in the history of American foreign policy”.

Draper’s article focuses on Powell and his UN speech of February 5, 2003.  A lot of the detail will be new to most readers, not very much new to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which had been established a month before. VIPS watched the speech, dissected it, and sent their verdict to President George W. Bush before close of business that same afternoon ( See: https://consortiumnews.com/2003/02/05/powells-un-speech-and-the-case-for-war/. ). We gave Powell a charitable grade of “C” for providing not much in the way of context and perspective.  We should have flunked him outright.

Here’s our final paragraph:

No one has a corner on the truth; nor do we harbor illusions that our analysis is irrefutable or undeniable [as Powell had claimed his was]. But after watching Secretary Powell today, we are convinced that you would be well served if you widened the discussion beyond violations of Resolution 1441, and beyond the circle of those advisers clearly bent on a war for which we see no compelling reason and from which we believe the unintended consequences are likely to be catastrophic.

As war clouds gathered, VIPS chose to assume that President Bush was not fully informed about how Cheney and Rumsfeld had shaped the intelligence and about the “catastrophe” we saw coming.  So VIPS issued two more Memoranda before the ‘Shock and Awe’ attack on Iraq.

Cooking Intelligence for War in Iraq March 12, 2003
https://consortiumnews.com/2003/03/12/cooking-intelligence-for-war-in-iraq/

Iraq Intel: Forgery, Hyperbole, Half-Truth March 18, 2003
https://consortiumnews.com/2003/03/18/iraq-intel-forgery-hyperbole-half-truth/

As for a “definitive revelatory reckoning”, Ray published one 15 years ago in a chapter for “Neo-CONNED Again!”, a collection of essays on Iraq. His chapter was titled: Sham Dunk: Cooking Intelligence for the President.  A link to the full text of the chapter is posted below — for those who may wish to compare what Draper says in his book, and the “adaptation” regarding Powell that The NY Times has just posted.

SHAM DUNK: COOKING INTELLIGENCE FOR THE PRESIDENT
By Ray McGovern, (in “Neo-CONNED Again!”, 2005
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vBsKG1CRHTpqKrtOm4_bftQSOWtjF_PE/view?usp=sharing

MICIMATT Keeping Us Stuck in Afghanistan

Ray uses the MICIMATT (Military-Industrial-Congressional-Intelligence-MEDIA-Academia-Think-Tank) acronym because it’s easy to understand and remember. It sounds like Mickey Mouse (who should be trusted in foreign policy to just about the same degree as the MCIMATT complex) and reminds us of Eisenhower’s MIC warning (which, sadly, is proving uncannily prescient.) In its most recent betrayal of what is right and just, the MICIMATT complex is thwarting all attempts to pull out of Afghanistan. Ray discusses on Crosstalk:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHTD7Vbkeg8

Don’t Be Like Mike

CIA’s Mike Morell tells us what “a normal administration” would have done w Russian bounty “intel.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/03/heres-how-normal-administration-would-have-handled-russian-bounty-intel/

Let’s examine Mike Morell’s track record. His boss George Tenet wrote that Mike was “the perfect guy” to brief Bush on how sure they were that Iraq had WMD’s and that he “coordinated” Colin Powell’s UN speech explaining how sure they were that Iraq had WMD’s. 
https://consortiumnews.com/2011/08/29/rise-of-another-cia-yes-man/

Rise of Another CIA Yes Man

The Power of Song: The Black National Anthem

By Ray McGovern, July 4, 2020

You be the judge.  How moving do you find the tune and and lyrics of this poignant song, which we sang loud and clear on occasions like the 4th of July at the Washington inner-city church where I worshipped?

Below is included (1) a short video of introduction to the song; (2) the lyrics; (3) my favorite video of a most joyful recording of the song; (4) the Spelman College Glee Club rendition; and (5) a chorus of young men singing it.

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38sxYtHRGGw
4 minutes

(2) Lyrics of:

LIFT EVERY VOICE AND SING — “THE BLACK NATIONAL ANTHEM”

Lift ev’ry voice and sing
‘Til earth and heaven ring
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty

Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list’ning skies
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea

Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us

Facing the rising sun of our new day begun
Let us march on ’til victory is won

Stony the road we trod
Bitter the chastening rod
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died

Yet with a steady beat
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way that with tears has been watered
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered

Out from the gloomy past
‘Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast

God of our weary years
God of our silent tears
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way

Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light
Keep us forever in the path, we pray

Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee
Lest, our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee

Shadowed beneath Thy hand
May we forever stand
True to our God
True to our native land

(3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwWhu8tw4nU
(10 minutes); a fun video of a recording, w/ Deniece Williams, Al Green et al.

(4) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOyVho1E4ZY
(3 minutes); the Spelman College Glee Club

(5) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngFDy52eCZY
(4 minutes); a chorus of young men

Happy Fourth of July!

Ray on the Archdeacon of NYT Pulitzer presstitutes re “Russian bounties” for killing U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan


July 1, 2020
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8mMmJ17n3Q
Ray’s 6 minutes begin at minute 3:20, but the intro is also interesting.

Ray’s article exposing/describing the “Archdeacon of Flat Fact” was published a couple of hours before the interview: https://consortiumnews.com/2020/07/01/ray-mcgovern-new-york-times-deploys-heavy-gun-to-back-intel-on-russian-bounties/