Patriotism may be the last refuge of a scoundrel, but complexity is right next door.  I found an old link to the published policy statements of DoE that supposedly proceeded from Cheney and the oil barons closed door meetings prior to 9/11.  But the link no longer worked and in its place a byzantine website of DoE policy gateways and portals that made no sense and pointers to tons of regulations on how to sell goods and services to DoE through its contracting offices.  Obfuscation deflects criticism, turns away all but your in-the-know friends and provides infinitely interpretable defenses if someone does call you on your process or the effectiveness of an executive office in meeting the basic needs of the nation.

Look. It’s time to admit, the Iraq war can happen only due to bi-partisan support. Solid GOP + huge chunk of Dems.

A lot of Iraq war legal groundwork was laid during Republican congress+Bill Clinton time. Bush administration just brings it to it’s logical conclusion.

for eg. anybody read the final phase II intel report? Doesn’t it read like collection of blogpost timeline from coop-research.com instead of answering question that we’ve been wondering? Why can’t the report answer basic question? (eg. why did they fired Perle/Feith, after there was massive bickering in 2006 or so. Bickering about “who stove pipe/spying in Pentagon”.  But yet those are NOT reported at all in final II intel report.

The senate committee report does not mention at all Pentagon civilian appointees who lied in very obvious ways about intel, even those who get caught spying for aipac.

Who lied about the Yellow cake, where the document come from and why are they hiding the investigation? Why is Rove still running around free?

..etc.

Bottom line, senate intel committee is an example why Iraq war can happen. (it actively enable, the whitewash the whole thing.)  The lie machine and the war enabling machine are still there. The scheme is still ongoing, now it’s just move to different mode. All the same people are still in there. (Wolfowitz for eg.)

Pretending that there’s any real complexity here is a great way for the many, many members of government (both in the executive branch and in Congress) who are complicit in the atrocity of the Iraq War to deflect blame.

It’s also, as Ambient Generation pointed out, important to keep in mind that the early groundwork for the deception began during the Clinton years. If Obama wins the presidency we will have to keep close watch for the appearance of small-scale deceptions that could snowball into larger lies in the future.

SueAnn Arrigo is the source. She was a high-level CIA insider. Her title was Special Operations Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI). She also established the Remote Viewing Defense protocols for the Pentagon in her capacity as Remote Viewing Advisor to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). It earned her a two-star general rank in the military. She called it a “ploy” so the Pentagon could get more of her time and have her attend monthly Joint Chiefs of Staff meetings. Only high-level types are invited, and she was there from October 2003 to July 2004.

Part of her job involved intelligence gathering on Iraq and Afghanistan - until August 2004 when she refused to spread propaganda about a non-existant Iranian nuclear weapons program and left. She followed in the footsteps of others at CIA who resigned for reasons of conscience and became critics - most notably Ray McGovern, Ralph McGehee, and Phil Agee.

On May 16, 2008, Arrigo sent extensive government corruption and cover-up information to Henry Waxman, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform committee - in 12 separate cases. This article covers four of them or about one-third of what Congress got. The 12 are explosive and revealing but just the tip of the iceberg:

  —of government corruption and war profiteering;

  —sweetheart deals and kickbacks;

  —high-level types on the take;

  —trillions of missing dollars;

  —on September 10, 2001, Rumsfeld admitting “According to some estimates, we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions;”

  —imagine the current amount;

  —its corrosive effect on the nation; and people should

  —demand accountability - who profits, who pays and what are the consequences of militarism gone mad.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lendman06112008.html