Did “The Process” Make Bush Do It?

The real purpose of a government
report is to place the blame where it does the least
damage to the political party in office.

The Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence`s “Report on the US Intelligence
Community`s Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq”
[PDF
—23 megabytes!]
carefully follows this time-honored rule.

At the July 9 press conference
heralding the release of the committee`s report, Senator
Pat Roberts (R, Kan) blamed the misinformation used to
start a war on a

“flawed process” that would be fixed with
“reforms.”

The Republicans hope to shift the
media`s focus away from those responsible for launching
a war to a debate over how a flawed intelligence process
should be reformed. Fox

“News” and other

Republican propaganda organs will fall in with the
program.

One journalist at the press
conference failed to lip-synch to the tune. He asked
Senator Pat Roberts why, with an election coming up, the
Select Committee failed to issue a report on the Bush
administration`s responsibility for the
misinformation—or disinformation—that has resulted in
deaths and injury to thousands of Americans.

The senator promised a report after
the election.

We don`t need an Intelligence
Committee`s report to answer the question. By now
everyone interested in the truth about the Iraq debacle
knows that Defense Undersecretary Douglas Feith, with
the permission of Secretary Don Rumsfeld and Deputy
Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, created an unofficial

“Iraqi intelligence cell” within the Pentagon to
produce propaganda to justify an invasion of Iraq.

Undersecretary Feith created
“evidence” that Osama bin Laden`s al-Qaeda terrorist
organization was linked to Saddam Hussein`s Iraq. An
appendix to the Select Committee`s report describes the
creation in black and white.

The CIA disputed the false
evidence, as did every informed person on the globe, but
President Bush solidified the connection in the public`s
mind by referring to bin Laden and Saddam Hussein in the
same breath in numerous speeches.

The other big piece of the

neoconservatives` propaganda campaign against Iraq
was the equally erroneous assertion that Iraq had
weapons of mass destruction.

The Bush administration convinced
the public and our elected officials that America`s
future held a Saddam Hussein mushroom cloud unless the
US immediately and preemptively invaded Iraq.

Vice President Cheney and his assistant

“Scooter” Libby were responsible for creating the
disinformation that Saddam Hussein had WMD. Vice
President Cheney succeeded in squelching or ignoring the
many experts who knew better.

The Select Committee`s report

states that the claim “that Iraq `is
reconstituting its nuclear program` was not supported by
the intelligence provided to the Committee” and that
“the major key judgments” used to justify the
invasion “either overstated, or were not supported
by, the underlying intelligence reporting.”

With total control over the Bush
administration, the neoconservatives came into power
fully intent on invading and occupying Iraq. High
ranking Bush administration officials, including Bush`s
first Treasury Secretary, have testified to that fact.
The neoconservatives used the

September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington to link

“the war on terror” to their scheme to invade
Iraq.

The only open question is whether
President Bush was an active participant in the
disinformation or was deceived like the American public.
If he knowingly participated in the deception, he must
be impeached. If he was deceived by his own appointees,
why hasn`t he fired them?

Bush`s reelection would signify
that the American people lack the competence or
character for self-rule.

The report from the Senate`s Select
Committee on Intelligence proves once again that
government lacks the moral integrity to conduct an
investigation.

The senators did not bring
responsibility to any individuals for a gratuitous
invasion that has generated hatred of, and insecurity
for, Americans for decades to come. Instead, the
senators` report held accountable that which cannot be
held accountable: “The Process.”

November will tell us whether there
is any moral integrity left in the electorate or whether
nothing remains but partisan politics—my party right or
wrong.

COPYRIGHT CREATORS
SYNDICATE, INC.

Paul Craig Roberts is the author with Lawrence M.
Stratton of

The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and
Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name
of Justice