http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14472.htm
Report:
Neocons siphoning secret
intelligence to Israel
Are neocons in the Bush administration
actually siphoning secret intelligence
to Israel in hopes of keeping the war going,
the war Rice is ostensibly trying to stop?
James Bamford says so.
Countdown - 08/07/06 MSNBC - Runtime 5 Minutes
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14472.htm
TRANSCRIPT
A growing body of evidence tonight
that the neoconservatives inside the
Bush administration who engineered the
U.S. invasion of Iraq might now be
setting their sights on Iran,
the fight between Hezbollah
and Israel serving as a conduit,
Sidney Blumenthal
reporting on Salon.com that,
with the president's approval,
the national Security Agency, the NSA,
is secretly providing intelligence to
Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran
are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah
as it fires Katyusha missiles and other
vehicles into northern Israel.
At the same time, Salon reports,
hard-liners in the administration
believe Secretary of State Rice is
not doing enough to push the
neoconservative agenda.
Joining me now to discuss that
revelation is James Bamford,
an expert on the U.S. intelligence
community and the author of
groundbreaking books on the
NSA called "Body of Secrets"
and "The Puzzle Palace."
He now has an article on the prospect
of war in Iran in the current issue of
"Rolling Stone" magazine.
Mr. Bamford, thank you for your time tonight.
JAMES BAMFORD, "ROLLING STONE":
No, my pleasure, Keith.
OLBERMANN:
Is the passing of secret
intelligence to Israel,
with the approval of the president,
a clear sign that the administration
might be looking to widen the conflict
in the Middle East, instead of trying
to contain it now?
BAMFORD:
Well, it's not just intelligence.
If you remember,
last week there was a major
report about how the U.S. was
rushing sophisticated weapons
to Israel for use in the war.
So it's clear that the U.S.,
particularly the Pentagon,
is pushing hard on behalf
of Israel in this war.
OLBERMANN:
Is it Condoleezza Rice herself that
the neoconservatives view as a threat?
Are they Colin-Powelling her?
Or would anyone holding the post of
secretary of state prove threatening
to this line of thought,
because diplomacy really is
the antithesis of regime change?
BAMFORD:
Well, I think Condi Rice is pretty
much a protegee of Colin Powell,
who they just couldn't stand as
secretary of state.
And they would prefer to have John Bolton,
our ambassador to the U.N., as secretary
of state, a fellow neocon.
So they're-at every chance they can,
I think they're going to try to undermine her,
and she's pushing to get a peace settlement as
soon as possible,
and I think they would like to
delay it as long as possible.
OLBERMANN:
By the mere fact, though,
that Iraq has not and is not going
and doesn't seem to be in the future
going to be going the way the neocons
had planned,
does that not detract from their
credibility about regime change
anywhere else, particularly in Iran,
even if it's as simple as wanting a do-over?
What would make destabilizing that
country and the process of that turn out any
differently than the process in Iraq has?
BAMFORD:
Well,
they're on an entirely different plane,
I think, than most people.
And I don't think this deters them at all.
They've had this goal for years,
for a decade, at least.
In 1996, they came up with the clean-break plan,
which was an outline for how Israel would basically
get rid of Iraq and Saddam Hussein and move into
Syria, Lebanon, and on to Iran.
I think they're trying to carry out this plan.
It was written by the person who's now
the Middle East adviser to ***** Cheney,
and the person who was in charge of
the war in Iraq, largely,
Doug Feith at the Pentagon,
in addition to the person who is
head of the Defense Policy Board,
Richard Perle.
So this has been a plan that's
been in the works for a long time.
And I think now it's their chance to
see a possibility for this to come to
fruition.
OLBERMANN:
Is there an irony in all this,
that Hezbollah's greatest ally in
the region right now might not be Iran,
but given that rally we saw in Baghdad today,
that it might turn out to be the Arab Shi'ite
majority that we have installed in Iraq?
BAMFORD: Well, that's certainly one irony.
Another irony is the fact
that it was Ahmed Chalabi,
the darling of the
neoconservatives,
that was used to gin up all the
phony information to help us get
into this war so that they could
put Chalabi in there as president
of Iraq.
And now it turns out that the
FBI is investigating Chalabi as
possibly a spy for Iran.
So the ultimate irony would be if
this was a plot all along by Iran,
using Chalabi,
to get the United States to
get rid of their worst enemy,
Saddam Hussein in Iraq,
and make Iraq very convenient
for a new Iranian government,
a Shi'ite-dominated government.
And that's basically what's happened.
OLBERMANN:
Sooner or later,
if you deal with faith-based facts,
you're going to trip on something.
National security expert James Bamford,
great thanks for joining us tonight.
BAMFORD: My pleasure, Keith.
.
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