Is US Establishing An Islamic Theocracy In Iraq?

Nuggin writes:Iran hires spy named "Curveball" to feed US/GB false information about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

link writes:3. “Curveball” turned out to be an appropriate moniker for this individual. His story was not only disinformation, but also disinformation that may have been deliberately fed to the U.S. by Ahmed Chalabi’s group. In light of allegations that Chalabi was connected to Iranian intelligence, one must wonder if Iran may also have been deliberately feeding Curveball’s b.s. to the U.S. This would not have required a great deal of guile on the part of the Germans and/or Iranians: it would have been like setting out a pot of honey in the path of a marauding, hungry bear. “Curveball’s story has since crumbled under doubts raised by the Germans and the scrutiny of U.S. weapons hunters, who have come to see his code name as particularly apt, given the problems that beset much of the prewar intelligence collection and analysis. U.N. weapons inspectors hypothesized that such trucks might exist, officials said. They then asked former exile leader Ahmed Chalabi, a bitter enemy of Hussein, to help search for intelligence supporting their theory.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)4. Curveball appeared right on time, providing the U.S. (through his German handlers) with just what they wanted to hear. “Soon after, a young chemical engineer emerged in a German refugee camp and claimed that he had been hired out of Baghdad University to design and build biological warfare trucks for the Iraqi army. Based largely on his account, President Bush and his aides repeatedly warned of the shadowy germ trucks, dubbed ”Winnebagos of Death’ or ”Hell on Wheels’ in news accounts, and they became a crucial part of the White House case for war, including Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s dramatic presentation to the U.N. Security Council just weeks before the war.” (Idem.)5. As it turned out, Curveball was the brother of one of Chalabi’s top aides. Again, Chalabi has been alleged to be a cat’s paw for Iranian intelligence. “Only later, U.S. officials said, did the CIA learn that the defector was the brother of one of Chalabi’s top aides, and begin to suspect that he might have been coached to provide false information. Partly because of that, some U.S. intelligence officials and congressional investigators fear that the CIA may have inadvertently conjured up and then chased a phantom weapons system. David Kay, who resigned in January as head of the CIA-led group created to find illicit weapons in Iraq, said that of all the intelligence failures in Iraq, the case of Curveball was particularly troubling. ”This is the one that’s damning,’ he said. ”This is the one that has the potential for causing the largest havoc in the sense that it really looks like a lack of due diligence and care in going forward.’’ (Idem.)6. “Kay said in an interview that the defector ”was absolutely at the heart of a matter of intense interest to us.’ But Curveball turned out to be an ”out-and-out fabricator,’ he added. . . .” (Idem.)7. “. . . U.S. and British intelligence officials have acknowledged since major combat ended in Iraq that lies or distortions by Iraqi opposition groups in exile contributed to numerous misjudgments about Iraq’s suspected weapons programs. Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress is blamed most often, but the rival Iraqi National Accord and various Kurdish groups also were responsible for sending dubious defectors to Western intelligence, officials say. . .” (Ibid.; p. 3.)

link writes:a 26. Just as the U.S. was lured into the Iraqi invasion under the auspices of bad intelligence and some fundamental illusions about the nature of the Middle East, so, too it may be in the process of being lured into a friendly relationship with the Islamofascist Muslim Brotherhood. An ally of the Third Reich, the Brotherhood is explicitly fascist. Like a number of neo-fascist movements (including the Italian Alleanza Nationale and the German NPD) the Brotherhood is attempting to use democratic means to achieve power, where it is deemed feasible. ...................... It may be that the Bush administration’s attempts at fostering democracy in the Middle East may result in the ascension of Islamofascist governments in those countries.30. It is disturbing to note that the Brotherhood is a dominant force in the American Islamic community: “Past and present Muslim Brotherhood supporters make up the U.S. Islamic community’s most organized force. They run hundreds of mosques and dozens of businesses engaging in ventures such as real estate development and banking. They also helped set up some of the leading American Islamic organizations that defend the rights of Muslims, promote Muslim civic activism and seek to spread Islam. For years, federal agents paid little heed to the Brotherhood, but after Sept. 11, they noticed that many leads went back to the Brotherhood. ”We see some sort of nexus, direct or indirect, to the Brotherhood, in ongoing cases,’ said Dennis Lormel, until recently a top FBI counterterrorism official. The architect of the Sept. 11 strikes, Khalid Sheik Mohamed, told U.S. interrogators that he was drawn to violent jihad after joining the Brotherhood in Kuwait at age 16 and attending its desert youth camps, according to the report released in July by the national commission that investigated the attacks.” (Ibid.; p. 2.)

minnemooseus writes:I don't recall what if any position you have taken here at , in regards to George W. Bush. There is a strong correlation between creationism and neo-con, but maybe you are not one of the such. Are/were you a GWB supporter? My instinct is that you are not a "rabid liberal GWB hater".Has the outcome of the war so far come as a surprise to you? You don't seem to have much disagreement (as far as my feeble memory recalls) with the replies you have received.

Moose writes:I infer from that statement that while you don't approve of GWB's having started the war et all, you consider it secondary to other issues. I would be also interested in more detail on your "et al".

Moose writes:George W. Bush has mistakenly started a war that has so far cost 231 billion dollars, not to mention all the lives, that appears to be having essentially nothing good coming out of it. You find that to be an insignificant blip on his overall performance as President?

Moose writes:It seems to me that the only justification for the war is that it is part of a welfare system for the military/industrial complex.

Moose writes:"Christian" George W. "God talks to me, God is on my side" Bush has done what he has done, and you condemn Islam?

Moose writes:Buz, I gotta say you're blowing a lot of smoke here.

Moose writes:George W. Bush is the commander in chief. He, and he only, was the one that said "Do it".

Moose writes:You now see the results. A very expensive epic mess.

Moose writes:Why are those life time Supreme Court appointments more important than what is looking to be the mother of all screw ups in the last 30 years? And it may yet turn out to be a bigger screw up than Viet Nam.

Funkaloyd writes:How many people wanted to invade Iraq before Bush started pushing for it?

jar writes:No problem Buz. All I wanted to do was correct the misstatements in your post. I've done that. The record stands. I simply wanted to make it clear that your assertion that Kennedy started our involvement in Vietnam was incorrect and that there is no possible comparision between either the latest Gulf War or the previous Gulf War with Truman's involvement in the Korean Conflict.When you insert misstatements of fact, even if only through ignorance, I would hope you would would like them corrected. Now, the next time someone brings up inaccurate comparisons such as the Vietnam War or comparing the Iraq invasion with Korea, you will be in a position to respond, "That's simply wrong."

holmes writes:Yes, it is true that there was supporters from both sides in congress, and I believe a slim majority within the population, for the war.

holmes writes: That does not make the decision a correct one, nor does it remove responsibility from GWBs shoulders. That's the point of leadership. He himself states that he alone has to make decisions even if they are unpopular, well that means that he does not get to say his decisions are right simply because they were popular. If it goes kablooey, then it is his error for not checking his facts and making the unpopular decision not to go to war.

holmes writes: No one was pushing this except a small group of neocons before Bush pressed the issue, and most of the people outside the top administrators were being fed bad information by a bad system which he himself presided over and had responsibility for making sure worked properly.

holmes writes:I agree that everyone who supported this war ought to be feeling some heat for their support. The evidence is in and it was botched. ............the person who spearheaded the campaign to divert resources to this new conflict, that oversaw the system that provided the evidence which made the case, and the person who oversaw the system which did NOT run the invasion correctly, was only one man............

holmes writes:If not for him, this would have gone very very differently.

holmes writes:I believe you are correct about Kennedy and others that began other wars. The only one I'd leave out is Roosevelt (WW2). That stands as a great counterpoint to what happened here. We stayed out of a war, which by rights we probably should have been engaging in long before. Once attacked we stayed on target and did not divert resources to other wars.

Shrafinator writes:"the whole nation believed the administration when it said that Iraq ha vWMD.