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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Steve Dietrich who wrote (428645)	7/17/2003 5:38:41 PM
From: Neocon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769670

Rice and Peres warn of Iraqi threat August 16, 2002 Posted: 4:29 AM EDT (0829 GMT) From Walter Rodgers CNN TEL AVIV, Israel (CNN) -- Attacking Iraq now would be "quite dangerous, but postponing it would be more dangerous," Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres said Thursday. "The problem today is not if but when," Peres said, "and if they think we wait, [Iraqi President] Saddam [Hussein] will change, and if he will change, it ... will be for the worse; he will have more weapons." It was a message echoed by President Bush's National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice who said Thursday there was a "very powerful moral case" for overthrowing Saddam. In an interview with CNN, Peres said a war with Iraq would be "an attempt to bring an end to the government of one of the most terrible persons of our time, Saddam Hussein. ... And we think and know that he is on his way to acquire a nuclear option; then it will be terrible." Asked how close he thought Iraq is to having a nuclear weapon, Peres said, "Nobody knows, but I would say a matter of years."... cnn.com The General Staff has determined that the fall of the Saddam regime eliminated the threat from Israel's eastern border. The military assesses that Syria has become unable to launch an attack by itself and that Iran might be deterred by the presence of U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan and Iraq. Another conclusion was that the fall of Iraq would significantly reduce the prospect of an Arab military coalition against Israel. Officials pointed to the commitment by Egypt and Jordan to their peace treaties with Israel. Officials said these developments could allow the military to significantly reduce Israel's armored corps and freeze procurement of additional aircraft. Israel is said to have about 4,000 main battle tanks and nearly 800 combat aircraft. Another option could dismantle at least one of the three regional commands in the military. The most likely command to be eliminated is Southern Command, which is deployed long the southern Egyptian and Jordanian borders. Yaron said the Defense Ministry's agreement to cut at least 2.8 billion shekel [$550 million] from the budget was based on the disappearance of the Iraqi threat. He said the ministry plans to maintain major research and development and procurement projects. "We must have less statistical weapons and more precision-guided weapons," Yaron said. "We must invest more in intelligence and surveillance systems because this can reduce the quantity of the weapons required. The intelligence and surveillance must continue to be a prority." Officials said Ya'alon and his aides agreed on the outline of the restructuring of the military and the revision of Israel's combat doctrine. They said this would be based on the bolstering of special operations forces, unmanned air vehicles, and fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. In 1997, the Defense Ministry launched a review of Israel's military doctrine, an effort that was never completed. The ministry has also established a new political-military unit, headed by Maj. Gen. Amos Gilead, authorized to update the military doctrine. Officials said a one threat that will not be significantly reduced by the fall of Iraq is that of Palestinian and Islamic insurgency. They said this threat would require the development of new technology, including improved command and control, intelligence and surveillance and precision weapons. "We are amid a regional earthquake that stems from the U.S. national security strategy that has designated targets in the sphere of counter-terrorism, weapons of mass destruction and irresponsible regimes," Ya'alon said. "If they succeed in introducing a democratic and stable regime in Iraq this will influence way beyond Iraq." 216.26.163.62

To: Steve Dietrich who wrote (428645)	7/17/2003 6:28:01 PM
From: Raymond Duray	Respond to of 769670

THE BOYS FROM OSP Steve, Re: Sharon himself said before the war that Israel considered Syria and Iran more dangerous to Israel than Iraq. Don Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz set up their own spook shop before the war, and they created their own reality with the Office of Special Plans (OSP). I first read about these creeps in Seymour Hersh's expose in May, but here's more detail from the Guardian. Of particular note is that Sharon provided a more ideological staff, bypassing Mossad, just as Wolfowitz felt a need to bypass the CIA here in the States. This is a damn ominous thing. As the wits say, Wolfowitz ought to be afforded his own opinion, but not his own facts. In the case of justifying the Iraq war crime, it sure looks like Wolfowitz created his own reality, then sold it upstream to the rest of the ideologues. guardian.co.uk <SNIP> The spies who pushed for war Julian Borger reports on the shadow rightwing intelligence network set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force Continues....... *************** Compare: newyorker.com <SNIP> SELECTIVE INTELLIGENCE by SEYMOUR M. HERSH Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources. Are they reliable? Issue of 2003-05-12 Posted 2003-05-05 They call themselves, self-mockingly, the Cabal—a small cluster of policy advisers and analysts now based in the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. In the past year, according to former and present Bush Administration officials, their operation, which was conceived by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, has brought about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community. These advisers and analysts, who began their work in the days after September 11, 2001, have produced a skein of intelligence reviews that have helped to shape public opinion and American policy toward Iraq. They relied on data gathered by other intelligence agencies and also on information provided by the Iraqi National Congress, or I.N.C., the exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi. By last fall, the operation rivalled both the C.I.A. and the Pentagon’s own Defense Intelligence Agency, the D.I.A., as President Bush’s main source of intelligence regarding Iraq’s possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda. As of last week, no such weapons had been found. And although many people, within the Administration and outside it, profess confidence that something will turn up, the integrity of much of that intelligence is now in question. Continues.........