Alex Linder
September 12th, 2004, 01:21 AM
http://www.vanguardnewsnetwork.com/2004b/LetterToAllWhoShouldKnow.htm
Letter: To All Those Who Should Know...
12 September 2004
Letter: To all those who should know and should speak out
Dear [________],
I find it odd and a bit disturbing that the ongoing back and forth in the media and among politicians over the war in Iraq is still operating on the premise that WMD were the sincere motive for the war -- more than a year after Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz stated plainly that WMD were chosen as the prime pretext mainly for bureaucratic reasons: "we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction," and later: "I'm not concerned about weapons of mass destruction." Everyone in Washington and in the media know this, yet the discussion goes on as if there is no dispute.
Consider:
Philip Zelikow, executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and former member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, spoke before an audience at the University of Virginia, where he teaches history, on September 10, 2002. There he stated: "Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel." "And this is the threat that dare not speak its name." "[T]he American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell."
General Anthony Zinni (Ret.) was Commander of the United States Central Command from 1997 to 2001, in charge of all American troops in the Middle East. This is the position formerly held by General Norman Schwarzkopf and until recently by General Tommy Franks. Following his retirement, the Bush administration appointed Zinni special envoy to the Middle East. In a recent interview with CBS News, Zinni stated: "I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do." "[In] one article, because I mentioned the neo-conservatives who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic. I mean, you know, unbelievable that that's the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it." "I know what strategy they promoted. And openly. And for a number of years. And what they have convinced the president and the secretary to do. And I don't believe there is any serious political leader, military leader, diplomat in Washington that doesn't know where it came from." The officials Zinni mentioned were Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle, National Security Council member Elliott Abrams, and Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. According to Zinni, they pushed the war against Iraq because they saw it as a way to "strengthen the position of Israel."
Senator Ernst Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) announced on August 4th, 2003 that he would not be seeking reelection to the Senate. Hollings, 81, had spent 50 years in public life. He graduated from the Citadel in Charston in 1942 and served in the army during WW2. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives at age 26, elected governor in 1958 at age 36, and has worked in the United States Senate since 1966, achieving seniority in 2003 following the death of Senator Strom Thurmond. On May 6th, 2004 Hollings issued an editorial to The Charleston Post and Courier, in which he stated that there was in fact no threat to the United States from Iraq, and that the attack was in reality "President Bush's policy to secure Israel." Hollings named "Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer" as the architects of this policy, and stated that: "[George W. Bush] started laying the groundwork to invade Iraq days after inauguration. And, without any Iraq connection to 9/11, within weeks he had the Pentagon outlining a plan to invade Iraq." Following his editorial, the Anti-Defamation League responded with accusations of anti-Semitism and demands for an apology. Hollings fired back: "I won't apologize for this column; I want them to apologize to me." "Talking about 'anti-Semitic.' They're not getting by with it." In a follow-up piece published in The Slate on June 23rd, Hollings explained: "In 1996, a task force was formed in Jerusalem including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser. They submitted a plan for Israel to incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Clean Break [A New Strategy For Securing the Realm] . . . Saddam Hussein was to be removed in Iraq and replaced with a Hashemite ruler favorable to Israel." (This possibility was recently discussed on Hardball with Chris Matthews (11/16/03) by James Woolsey. Woolsey is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is a member of the Policy Advisory Board to the Secretary of Defense, and is on the board of The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.) Hollings: "The plan was rejected by Netanyahu, so Perle started working for a similar approach to the Mideast for the United States. Taking on the support of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Cambone, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld et al., he enlisted the support of the Project for the New American Century. The plan hit paydirt with the election of George W. Bush. Perle took on the Defense Policy Board. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith became one, two and three at the Defense Department, and Cheney as vice president took Scooter Libby and David Wurmser as his deputies. Clean Break was streamlined to go directly into Iraq."
Rep. James Moran (D) of Virginia spoke before a gathering at an antiwar forum in Reston, Virginia on March 3, 2003. He told the audience: "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should." Moran immediately came under fire for his comments, with condemnations from Jewish groups and fellow lawmakers on the hill. Despite national efforts to oust him, however, he recently defeated well-funded primary challenger Andrew Rosenberg and expects to be elected to his eighth term in November.
Letter: To All Those Who Should Know...
12 September 2004
Letter: To all those who should know and should speak out
Dear [________],
I find it odd and a bit disturbing that the ongoing back and forth in the media and among politicians over the war in Iraq is still operating on the premise that WMD were the sincere motive for the war -- more than a year after Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz stated plainly that WMD were chosen as the prime pretext mainly for bureaucratic reasons: "we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction," and later: "I'm not concerned about weapons of mass destruction." Everyone in Washington and in the media know this, yet the discussion goes on as if there is no dispute.
Consider:
Philip Zelikow, executive director of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States and former member of the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, spoke before an audience at the University of Virginia, where he teaches history, on September 10, 2002. There he stated: "Why would Iraq attack America or use nuclear weapons against us? I'll tell you what I think the real threat [is] and actually has been since 1990 - it's the threat against Israel." "And this is the threat that dare not speak its name." "[T]he American government doesn't want to lean too hard on it rhetorically, because it is not a popular sell."
General Anthony Zinni (Ret.) was Commander of the United States Central Command from 1997 to 2001, in charge of all American troops in the Middle East. This is the position formerly held by General Norman Schwarzkopf and until recently by General Tommy Franks. Following his retirement, the Bush administration appointed Zinni special envoy to the Middle East. In a recent interview with CBS News, Zinni stated: "I think it's the worst kept secret in Washington. That everybody - everybody I talk to in Washington has known and fully knows what their agenda was and what they were trying to do." "[In] one article, because I mentioned the neo-conservatives who describe themselves as neo-conservatives, I was called anti-Semitic. I mean, you know, unbelievable that that's the kind of personal attacks that are run when you criticize a strategy and those who propose it." "I know what strategy they promoted. And openly. And for a number of years. And what they have convinced the president and the secretary to do. And I don't believe there is any serious political leader, military leader, diplomat in Washington that doesn't know where it came from." The officials Zinni mentioned were Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, former chairman of the Defense Policy Board Richard Perle, National Security Council member Elliott Abrams, and Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff. According to Zinni, they pushed the war against Iraq because they saw it as a way to "strengthen the position of Israel."
Senator Ernst Fritz Hollings (D-South Carolina) announced on August 4th, 2003 that he would not be seeking reelection to the Senate. Hollings, 81, had spent 50 years in public life. He graduated from the Citadel in Charston in 1942 and served in the army during WW2. He was elected to the South Carolina House of Representatives at age 26, elected governor in 1958 at age 36, and has worked in the United States Senate since 1966, achieving seniority in 2003 following the death of Senator Strom Thurmond. On May 6th, 2004 Hollings issued an editorial to The Charleston Post and Courier, in which he stated that there was in fact no threat to the United States from Iraq, and that the attack was in reality "President Bush's policy to secure Israel." Hollings named "Wolfowitz, Richard Perle and Charles Krauthammer" as the architects of this policy, and stated that: "[George W. Bush] started laying the groundwork to invade Iraq days after inauguration. And, without any Iraq connection to 9/11, within weeks he had the Pentagon outlining a plan to invade Iraq." Following his editorial, the Anti-Defamation League responded with accusations of anti-Semitism and demands for an apology. Hollings fired back: "I won't apologize for this column; I want them to apologize to me." "Talking about 'anti-Semitic.' They're not getting by with it." In a follow-up piece published in The Slate on June 23rd, Hollings explained: "In 1996, a task force was formed in Jerusalem including Richard Perle, Douglas Feith and David Wurmser. They submitted a plan for Israel to incoming Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called Clean Break [A New Strategy For Securing the Realm] . . . Saddam Hussein was to be removed in Iraq and replaced with a Hashemite ruler favorable to Israel." (This possibility was recently discussed on Hardball with Chris Matthews (11/16/03) by James Woolsey. Woolsey is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), is a member of the Policy Advisory Board to the Secretary of Defense, and is on the board of The Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs.) Hollings: "The plan was rejected by Netanyahu, so Perle started working for a similar approach to the Mideast for the United States. Taking on the support of Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Cambone, Scooter Libby, Donald Rumsfeld et al., he enlisted the support of the Project for the New American Century. The plan hit paydirt with the election of George W. Bush. Perle took on the Defense Policy Board. Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith became one, two and three at the Defense Department, and Cheney as vice president took Scooter Libby and David Wurmser as his deputies. Clean Break was streamlined to go directly into Iraq."
Rep. James Moran (D) of Virginia spoke before a gathering at an antiwar forum in Reston, Virginia on March 3, 2003. He told the audience: "If it were not for the strong support of the Jewish community for this war with Iraq, we would not be doing this." "The leaders of the Jewish community are influential enough that they could change the direction of where this is going, and I think they should." Moran immediately came under fire for his comments, with condemnations from Jewish groups and fellow lawmakers on the hill. Despite national efforts to oust him, however, he recently defeated well-funded primary challenger Andrew Rosenberg and expects to be elected to his eighth term in November.