The CIA "War" on Bush: The New Neocon Ploy

Extreme Right meet the Extreme Left. Now you both can agree. Whatever happens, it must be the fault of the CIA. Sleeper cell members, Al-Qaeda operatives, terrorists, foreign agents you can all rest easy. We've finally found the enemy and it ain't you. Nope. It's our own subversive intelligence services. If we don't have the Mullahs to kick around anymore, what better substitute than the boys over at Langley?

As I mentioned just yesterday, the neocon pushback on the NIE Iran report continues to be relentless. Now it has gelled into a visible, pointed strategy. It's all about the "CIA's war on Bush" as the geniuses over at Powerlines have put it.

On the same blog, long-time Kissinger Krony and current employee at the American Enterprise Institute, Mark Falcoff, argues the same line, explaining to us dunderheads that the CIA is divided into two clear factions. The action/operative types are just like the cool straight-shooters in the movies. And then, oh heavens, are all those pointy-headed analyst guys who...well... you just can't trust. Says Falcoff: "The estimates guys are mostly academic types who couldn't find a job teaching at a university when they got their Ph.D. Politically and culturally they are absolutely indistinguishable from the career people at the State Department. You can imagine what that means in the present context of Bush-hatred."

Oooooo, how scary indeed! If the CIA guys are so twisted, incompetent and duplicitous, what must the resident "scholars" at the lower-rung AEI think-tank be like? Mark?

And the beat goes on. The Wall Street Journal editorialized, going way over the edge, by fingering the alleged three authors of the NIE report as "hyper-partisan anti-Bush officials." Why, natch. How come the rest of us didn't figure this out? Sixteen separate U.S. intelligence agencies, working for more than a year to figure out what's really going on Iran, colluded to put their names behind what is, in reality, a Democratic election-year ploy to discredit the administration they all serve! How obvious.

Having finally exhausted the re-runs of the 2007 World Series of Poker, I flicked on Charlie Rose late last night who was chatting away with Fred Thompson. And there was Uncle Fred nimbly tapping out the same dance as the Powerline guys. I'll admit that Thompson pushed me too close to a state of narcolepsy to have actually taken notes, but I was awake enough to notice how dutifully he was trashing the CIA. If they so botched up Iraq, Thompson drawled, how on earth could we believe what they have to say about Iran?

Which doesn't answer, of course, the question of why Thompson is currently supporting a war based on the same intelligence he now dismisses. But then again none of this is about providing answers -- only excuses. Excuses to continue a tilt toward war in Iran, no matter the reality.

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

Remember "the Rove Principle": Divide, and Conquer.

The key word is "versus." Get the nation divided, fighting among themselves or at least pulling in different directions. Put a huge show of an election with the usual cast of characters (each designed to appeal to, and thus isolate from the others, a particular ethnic or social group). Shout, loud and constantly, that there is nothing a United States Senator can possibly do now... that nothing can possibly be done until next November.

Likewise: when a bald-faced lie is exposed, lie some more. Louder. Divisively. Whack the blame-button. Keep them stirred-up so they won't consolidate their resolve. Keep them feeling divided so that "One Nation" loses its meaning...

Lone Ranger: "Tonto! We're divided!"
Tonto: "Whaddaya mean 'we,' paleface?"

Isn't this what Abraham Lincoln meant, about "a house divided?" What FDR meant about "fear itself?"

"Come together. Right now."

[RnR]

Is the war on bush a little blow back due to the fact that the bush regime cooked the intel the first time around and then outed one of them?

I surely hope the cia has those kind of huevos.

[CountryBeforeParty]

Remember, this is the administration that ran for election on being 'The Party of Responsibility".

HA!

[goofticket]

It's very strange when the President thinks the government is out get him.

It proves the President, is well, ...strange­.

[Jonahson]

The CIA is just taking a pre emptive strike at Bush just in case they are made the scapegoat the last time when no WMD is found.

[Canukistani]

You gotta hand it to these guys. Even though all of the world and all of reality conspires against them, even though there's nothing to support them but their own beliefs, they know they're right and nothing's going to change that. Nothing.

[TakeNoNeoConPrisoners]

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...eh­...won't get fooled again." George WRONG Bu$hit

"New boss (Hiliary 2008) same as the old boss (GWB." TNNCP

All repigs are equal except some repigs (neoconmen) are more equal than other repigs. TNNCP

[biwee]

Falcoff at the American Enterprise Institutem huh?
You DO know that AEI is an Israel FIRST operation, don't you? Where do you think discredited Wolfowitz landed after being bounced??

[mouselion]

The last sentence of the WSJ op ed:
"Our intelligence services are supposed to inform the policies of elected officials, but increasingly their judgments seem to be setting policy. This is dangerous.­"

Setting policy? Sounds like Bush hasn't changed his mind one bit.

The intelligence community submits the NIE, which gives the analysis of the facts as they are known --and that's setting policy? Sounds like the WSJ has a little explaining to do of their own, on that one.

[bethinCary]

Look at those who took us into war with Iraq. The Ledeens, Franklins, and Wolfowitzs' are all neocons who don't hold the US interests above Israels(AIPAC,NIE).
They continue to use sources like Ghorbanifar (going back to Iran/Contra)and Curveball-as sources for DISinformation (although these 2 have been thoroughly debunked by us and other countries as known liars).
They have a thirst for war-at the expense of American lives. They live in the illusion of their own minds-and refuse to believe reality-especially when reality does not suit thier wants and needs.

[Counterglow]

Bolton was parroting the same bullshit on CBC Canada's "As It Happens" last night. He even got snippy when the interviewer asked some inconvenient questions.

We tend to be a bit less reverent of people in power up here...I guess he wasn't used to it.

[bethinCary]

The NEI and other neocons originated in NY with a group of Jewish intellectuals who were writers predominately like Podhertz and Trilling.
They started off as libs opposing and opposed the Vietnam war. They also opposed the "hippies" of the 60s and branched off from Goldwater. Thier extreme views,because they wrote for mostly Pro-Israeli magazines, became the main focal point of thier neocon viewpoint. Podhertz and other neocons hold thier own views of "forced democracy"on other countries-and the interests of Israel, above the US' own interests. Many who know these "NY INtellectuals" agree on the fact that they should have no place in govt. office because of their unbending extremist views (like Podhertz), who hold Israels' interests above the US, despite the fact that they are US citizens.

[vippy]

When we vote, remember not to vote for any
incumbents who supported this president and failed to do their job. Seems like we only have one party and we were duped into thinking
we actually had two! Vote Kucinich or Ron Paul. No other qualifies. Just more spin.

[kindofblue]

This comment gets right to the point:

"lower-rung AEI think-tank"

Inadequacy, failure, self-hatred, projection. How many times has this played out with the angry far right? Clarence Thomas isn't persecuted by affirmative action-he's just a mediocre thinker. Limbaugh isn't persecuted cause he's white, he just doesn't have any talent. Larry Craig, Ted Haggard, Michael Savage, aren't threatened by the gay agenda-they're just fighting their own gayness.

And these AEI dead-enders-no matter how proudly they wear their bowties, they still can't cut it as academics in the real world. So they have to make up their own and denigrate those who accept peer review.

[fatmo]

It is amazing how Republicans in Iowa and else where can continue to believe anything that comes from this group. They have lied continually and been caught. So now they go after the messengers who bring out the truth. I can only guess they are to embarrassed to admit they were wrong to praise Bush. Now they start calling names to try and feel like they were right.
A recent poll says 80% of Republicans in Iowa still think Bush is doing a good job. Talk about stopping the use of your brain this is it.