*Ø* Blogmanac | The Neo-Con-spiracy: Worse than Iran-Contra

Cheney's hawks 'hijacking policy'

"A former Pentagon officer turned whistleblower says a group of hawks in the Bush Administration, including the Vice-President, Dick Cheney, is running a shadow foreign policy, contravening Washington's official line.

"'What these people are doing now makes Iran-Contra [a Reagan administration national security scandal] look like amateur hour. . . it's worse than Iran-Contra, worse than what happened in Vietnam,' said Karen Kwiatkowski, a former air force lieutenant-colonel.

"'[President] George Bush isn't in control . . . the country's been hijacked,' she said, describing how 'key[governmental] areas of neoconservative concern were politically staffed'.

"Ms Kwiatkowski, who retired this year after 20 years service, was a Middle East specialist in the office of the Undersecretary of Defence for Policy, headed by Douglas Feith.

"She described 'a subversion of constitutional limits on executive power and a co-optation through deceit of a large segment of the Congress', adding that 'in order to take that first step - Iraq - lies had to be told to Congress to bring them on board'.

"Ms Kwiatkowski said the pursuit of national security decisions often bypassed 'civil service and active-duty military professionals', and was handled instead by political appointees who shared common ideological ties.

"There was speculation earlier this year that such an ideologue group had emerged, and that it was behind the US attack on an Iraqi convoy in Syria in June.

"The New York Times quoted Patrick Lang, a former senior Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) official, as saying that many in the Government believed the incursion was an effort by ideologues to disrupt co-operation between the US and Syria ..."
Source: Sydney Morning Herald

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Dick Cheney, Commander in Chief

"'Like with a horse, Powell is always able to lead Bush to the water. But just as he is about to put his head down, Cheney up in the saddle says, "Un-uh," and yanks up the reins before Bush can drink the water. That's my image of how it goes,' said Sen. Joseph Biden, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, describing the power relationship between George Bush and Dick Cheney in a recent interview with the National Journal.

"The image of the president of the United States as a tame horse, saddled up and ridden by his own vice president, may seem overblown, but Biden is not alone in his assessment of the White House's internal dynamics. When it comes to foreign policy, Cheney is increasingly seen as holding the reins in the power circles within Washington ..."
Source: Alternet

Thanks, long-time Almaniac Lynn Perry, for sending these.