{"id":17685,"date":"2022-10-24T11:59:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-24T15:59:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=17685"},"modified":"2022-10-24T12:16:57","modified_gmt":"2022-10-24T16:16:57","slug":"the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/24\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\/","title":{"rendered":"The Mirage of Washington Intelligence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Libertarian Institute, October 24, 2022\"\"<\/a><\/h3>\n

The Mirage of Washington Intelligence<\/a><\/h1>\n

by Jim Bovard<\/a><\/span> |<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cYou can send a man to Congress but you can\u2019t make him think,\u201d quipped comedian Milton Berle in the 1950s. To update Berle for our times: You can spend $60 billion a year on intelligence agencies but you can\u2019t make politicians read their reports. Instead, most politicians remain incorrigibly ignorant and hopelessly craven when presidents drag America into new foreign fiascos.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Congressional docility has been paving the way to war since at least the Vietnam era. In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson invoked an alleged North Vietnamese attack on a U.S. destroyer in the Gulf of Tonkin to ram a resolution through Congress giving LBJ unlimited authority to attack North Vietnam. LBJ had decided earlier that year to attack North Vietnam to boost his reelection campaign. The Pentagon and White House quickly recognized that the core allegations behind the Gulf of Tonkin resolution were false but exploited them to sanctify the war.<\/p>\n

When the official story of the Gulf of Tonkin attacks begin unraveling at secret 1968 Senate hearings, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara proclaimed that it was \u201cinconceivable that anyone even remotely familiar with our society and system of government could suspect the existence of a conspiracy\u201d to take America to war on false pretenses. But indignation was no substitute for hard facts. Sen. Frank Church (D-ID) declared, \u201cIn a democracy you cannot expect the people, whose sons are being killed and who will be killed, to exercise their judgment if the truth is concealed from them.\u201d The chairman of the committee, Sen. J. William Fulbright (D-AR), declared that if senators did not oppose the war at that point,\u00a0 \u201cWe are just a useless appendix on the governmental structure.\u201d But other senators blocked the release of a staff report on the lies behind the Gulf of Tonkin incident that propelled a war that was killing 400 American troops a week. Sen. Mike Mansfield (D-MT) warned, \u201cYou will give people who are not interested in facts a chance to exploit them and to magnify them out of all proportion.\u201d The same presumption has shielded every subsequent U.S. military debacle.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lazy, cowardly congressmen perpetually paved the way for foreign carnage. In October 2002, prior to the vote on the congressional resolution to permit President George W. Bush to do as he pleased on Iraq, the CIA delivered a 92-page classified assessment of Iraq\u2019s weapons of mass destruction to Capitol Hill. The classified CIA report raised far more doubts about the existence of Iraqi WMDs than did the 5-page executive summary that all members of Congress received. The report was stored in two secure rooms\u2014one each for the House and the Senate. Only six senators bothered to visit the room to look at the report, and only a \u201chandful\u201d of House members did the same, according to The Washington Post<\/em>. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-W VA) explained that congressmen were too busy to read the report: \u201c\u2018Everyone in the world wants to come to see you\u2019 in your office, and going to the secure room is \u2018not easy to do.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Hundreds of thousands of Americans were sent 6,000 miles away because congressmen could not be bothered to walk across the street. Congressmen acted as if going to a secured room to peruse a 92-page document was the equivalent of reading the entire 38 volume Encyclopedia Britannica <\/em>by candlelight in a musty closet. Most congressmen had ample time to give speeches seconding Bush\u2019s saber rattling, but no time to sift the purported evidence for the war. The only relevant evidence for many congressmen were the polls showing strong support of the president.<\/strong><\/p>\n

More details of the path to the Iraq War have been exposed in Sen. Patrick Leahy\u2019s new memoir, The Road Taken<\/em>. Leahy was one of the few senators who went to the classified room to read some of the confidential material on the war.\u00a0 As he and his wife were out on a Sunday walk in their ritzy McLean, Virginia neighborhood in September 2002:<\/p>\n

Two fit joggers<\/a> trailed behind us. They stopped and asked what I thought of the intelligence briefings I\u2019d been getting\u2026I went through a requisite disclaimer that if I was in briefings and if they were classified, I could not acknowledge that they even occurred and could not talk about them if they had. They told me they understood that, but asked whether the briefers had showed me File Eight.<\/p>\n

It was obvious from the look on my face that I had not seen such a file. They suggested I should and that I might find it interesting. Quickly thereafter I arranged to see File Eight, and it contradicted much of what I had heard from the Bush administration.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A happy ending? No, not quite.\u00a0 A few days later, Leahy and his wife were out walking and the same joggers reappeared and asked what he thought of that secret file. Leahy commented, \u201cIt was the eeriest conversation I\u2019d experienced in Washington. I felt like a senatorial version of Bob Woodward meeting Deep Throat\u2014only in broad daylight.\u201d The joggers then asked if Leahy \u201chad also been shown File Twelve, using a code word\u2026The next day, I was back in the secure room in the Capitol to read File Twelve, and it again contradicted the statements that the administration, and especially Vice President Cheney.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following Sunday, Leahy and his wife were walking past Robert Kennedy\u2019s former estate when black cars with multiple antennas and darkened windows pulled up. Leahy wrote:<\/p>\n

\u201cA member of the presidential inner circle leaned out from the back window, greeting both myself and [his wife] Marcelle, and asked if he could talk with me\u2026I got in the car with him while the security people got out of the car. We sat there and talked, and he said, \u2018I understand you\u2019ve seen File Eight and Twelve.\u2019 I said I had, and I knew of course that he\u2019d seen them. He said, \u2018I also understand you\u2019re going to vote against going to war.\u2019 I said, \u2018I am, because we all know there are no weapons of mass destruction and the reasons for going to war are just not there.\u2019 He asked if he could talk me out of that, and I said no, and we ended the conversation. I started to get out of the car, and he said they would give me a ride home. \u2018Thanks\u2014let me tell you where I live.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The unnamed top Bush administration official replied: \u201cWe know where you live.\u201d Leahy didn\u2019t ask the dude whether he also knew all of Leahy\u2019s computer passwords.<\/p>\n

Leahy voted against the Bush resolution to use military force against Iraq. But Leahy waited 20 years to reveal the inside shenanigans he had seen on the road to war. And Leahy still refuses to disclose the name of the \u201cmember of the presidential inner circle\u201d who was stalking him that morning in McLean. Podcast host Jimmy Dore scoffed <\/a>that Leahy\u2019s story was \u201cjust like a political thriller but at the end nothing happens and nothing is resolved.\u201d Dore commented, \u201cThere\u2019s a war anyway and he says nothing for 20 fucking years. The end. Did they even bother testing that ending with audiences?\u201d Edward Snowden<\/a> tweeted on Leahy\u2019s story: \u201cHow could Leahy sit on classified information he knew could stop a war?\u201d<\/p>\n

But cover-ups are often unnecessary in Washington because few members of Congress are paying attention regardless.<\/strong> After four U.S. soldiers were killed in Niger in 2017, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) admitted they did not know that a thousand U.S. troops were deployed to that African nation. Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, admitted, \u201cWe don\u2019t know exactly where we\u2019re at in the world militarily and what we\u2019re doing.\u201d U.S. troops were engaged in combat in 14 foreign nations at that time, purportedly fighting terrorists. But most members of Congress probably not list list more than 2 or 3 nations where U.S. troops are fighting.<\/p>\n

As the U.S. government has become far more secretive in recent decades, congressional intelligence committees supposedly provide a check-and-balance for agencies hiding behind iron curtains. But \u201cintelligence committee\u201d is perhaps Washington\u2019s biggest oxymoron.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Congressional intelligence committees lead the charge to kowtow to the CIA and other agencies. The Senate Intelligence Committee effectively absolved all of the Bush administration\u2019s lies on the path to war with Iraq. When its report was released in mid-2004 (just in time to boost Bush\u2019s re-election campaign), committee chairman Sen. Pat Roberts (R-KS) announced, \u201cThe committee found that the intelligence community was suffering from what we call a collective groupthink<\/a>.\u201d And since everyone was wrong, no one was at fault\u2014especially conniving Vice President Dick Cheney. (Antiwar.com was right long before the war started). The CIA also paid no price when it was caught illegally spying on the Senate Intelligence Committee\u2019s investigation of CIA torture during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

And then there are the official bootlicking awards<\/strong>. The CIA publicly awards its Agency Seal Medal to members of Congress who boost its budget, coverup its crimes, and refrain from asking embarrassing questions. Pat Roberts got one\u2014along with Rep. Jane Harman (D-California), Sen. John Warner (R-Virginia), and Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-MI)\u2014all reliable stooges for the agency. The Founding Fathers would spin in their graves at the notion of federal agencies giving awards to congressmen who were supposed to be holding the leash on the agency. This is akin to a judge bragging about receiving a Public Service Award from a mobster who he connived to find not guilty.<\/p>\n

There are some smart, dedicated, principled members of Congress who overcome the prevailing lethargy and bureaucratic roadblocks to learn enough to recognize the follies of proposed interventions. But those stalwart souls will probably always be outnumbered by the herd of senators and representatives far more likely to skim the latest polls than to read any official report longer than a tweet thread.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Libertarian Institute, October 24, 2022 The Mirage of Washington Intelligence by Jim Bovard | \u201cYou can send a man to Congress but you can\u2019t make him think,\u201d quipped comedian Milton Berle in the 1950s. To update Berle for our times: You can spend $60 billion a year on intelligence agencies but you can\u2019t make politicians […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19,347,15,3101,3357,137,3362,1980,3363,36,3359,3356,2372,1481,3358,524,3360,3361,2610,342,121],"class_list":["post-17685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cheney","tag-cia","tag-congress","tag-frank-church","tag-fulbright","tag-george-w-bush","tag-groupthink","tag-gulf-of-tonkin","tag-intelligence-committee","tag-iraq","tag-jimmy-dore","tag-lbj","tag-leahy","tag-lindsey-graham","tag-mansfield","tag-milton-berle","tag-n-iger","tag-pat-roberts","tag-schumer","tag-snowden","tag-vietnam"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Mirage of Washington Intelligence - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Members of Congress are mostly clueless and often too cowardly to resist presidents dragging America into war\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/24\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Mirage of Washington Intelligence - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Members of Congress are mostly clueless and often too cowardly to resist presidents dragging America into war\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/24\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-10-24T15:59:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-10-24T16:16:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/Screenshot-2022-10-24-at-12-13-36-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/24\\\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/24\\\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"The Mirage of Washington Intelligence\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-10-24T15:59:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-10-24T16:16:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/24\\\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1689,\"commentCount\":5,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/24\\\/the-mirage-of-washington-intelligence\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2022\\\/10\\\/Screenshot-2022-10-24-at-12-13-36-The-Libertarian-Institute.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Cheney\",\"CIA\",\"Congress\",\"Frank Church\",\"Fulbright\",\"George W. 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The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism & Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. 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