The latest excuse for our permanent presence in Iraq is: Hey, we still have troops in Germany and Japan. John McCain picked this up and the YouTube video is going viral.

So asks McClatchy Newspapers ("Truth to Power") Washington Bureau reporter, John Walcott:

WASHINGTON — Defense Department counterintelligence investigators suspected that Iranian exiles who provided dubious intelligence on Iraq and Iran to a small group of Pentagon officials might have "been used as agents of a foreign intelligence service ... to reach into and influence the highest levels of the U.S. government," a Senate Intelligence Committee report said Thursday.

[Stephen Cambone], however, shut down the 2003 investigation into the Pentagon officials' activities after only a month, and the Defense Department's top brass never followed up on the investigators' recommendation for a more thorough investigation, the Senate report said.

The revelation raises questions about whether Iran may have used a small cabal of officials in the Pentagon and in Vice President Dick Cheney's office to feed bogus intelligence on Iraq and Iran to senior policymakers in the Bush administration who were eager to oust the Iraqi dictator. [emphasis added]

Uh-oh:

Report accuses Bush of misrepresenting Iraq intel
By PAMELA HESS, Associated Press Writer
58 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A new Senate report gives a fresh shot of adrenaline to the election-year debate over the Iraq war. President Bush and his top officials deliberately misrepresented secret intelligence to make the case to invade Iraq, according to the Senate Intelligence Committee

.

Recent Bush Administration mutterings about an enduring "Status of Forces Agreement" (SOFA) between the US and Iraq, together with the still-pending passage of a new "Oil Law" in Iraq, inspires the following:

Much has already been written about the recent NIE and how the United States Intelligence Community is a bunch of lying, terrorist loving conspiracists that don’t have a clue about "real intelligence".

Yet, these people have such short memories, as they were singing the praises of the NIE back when it was convenient for them to do so.

Let’s start with one similarity, just to dismiss the "Cheney didn’t pressure anyone onthe NIEs and even if he did, they didn’t change. anything" comments that may come.

President Bush's amen corner in the conservative commentariat is apoplectic over the new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran.  After all, the report's conclusion that Tehran suspended its nuclear weapons program inn 2003 knocked the legs out from their  "World War III" rhetoric.  And as you'd expect, the same people who helped bring you the war in Iraq are now quick to claim CIA incompetence and conspiracies are behind the new assessment.

To be perfectly fair, the exact words used in this AEI press release are these:

Indeed, as Ledeen demonstrates in The Iranian Time Bomb, the relationship between Iran and al Qaeda over the years has been so close that it is difficult today not to conclude that Iran was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

[Hat Tip to this guy over at Iranian.com]

UPDATE: I changed the title. I just found this at Limbaugh's. It's from today.

Of course, the story coming out of Oakland -- and I guess there's some controversy about it, but -- apparently some Marines getting home, landing at Oakland, were spit on by people in the Oakland airport. Now, I haven't been able to confirm it, but it's on a couple blogs and apparently there are some witnesses that say that they did see it.

"Some controversty to it." The controversy being that not even in the most ardent RW blogs is there any mention of actual "spitting." But Limbaugh takes this non-story about an imagined dissing of troops for being troops and now has witnesses - witnesses to SPITTING ON TROOPS. Unbelievable. Michael Ledeen - you've done the job that only someone with your complete lack of ethics could do. END UPDATE.

A Tale of Three (so far) Emails.

[UPDATE: Free Republic has it now. Comments. Are. Priceless. It's all "lefty  Oakland's" doing.]

[UPDATE II: See below. Really. (And read Soonergrunt's comment.)

Michael Ledeen has never seen a "spitting on the troops" story he didn't like. In this post, entitled "Spitting on the Marines," [woo hoo!] he tells us about an email he received:

Spitting on the Marines   [Michael Ledeen]

Here is an e-mail from a Marine chaplain recently returned from Iraq. The story speaks for itself—lousy treatment of our troops at our own airports. He writes about Oakland, and while checking around I find that this is a common experience. I hope that one of our leaders will find a way to put an end to such behavior.

Marines and Soldiers Returning from Iraq not allowed into Oakland terminal...

Shocking soggy spat-upon details below.

This ominous blockquote from Dr. Barnett Rubin’s excellent Aug. 29 diary Post Labor Day Product Rollout: War with Iran (Cross-Posted at Informed Comment Global Affairs)! really got my attention, so I filed it away...

They [the source's institution] have "instructions" (yes, that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary, Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they don't think they'll ever get majority support for this--they want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book is "plenty."

...but at the time, I just couldn’t bring myself to believe the administration could really be that insane.  However, over the last few days, I’ve seen some things that look to me like an implementation of these "instructions".  More after the fold--  

Perhaps in response to the Dick Cheney-mandated rightwing PR blitzkrieg to sell Americans on the efficacy and necessity of extending the Iraq war into Iran, the folks at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research have announced a book forum at the Wohlstetter Conference Center in DC on Monday, September 10, which is also the first day of testimony regarding the results of splurge of blood and bucks in Iraq.

On hand will be none other than Michael Ledeen, he of the "faster, please" school of overthrowing the government of Tehran. He'll be touting, perhaps reading a couple of excerpts from, his new book - The Iranian Time Bomb: The Mullah Zealots' Quest for Destruction, a title he's been employing on various columns for more than five years.

As Glenn Greenwald pointed out at Salon.com Wednesday: "Simply put, there is no more ridiculous, deceitful, untrustworthy and just outright laughable political figure of influence than Michael Ledeen." And that's being kind.

The list of Ledeen's idiocies - and, I might add, behavior that in a just world would be subject to prosecution - is too long to repeat here, although any interested reader unacquainted with the man would do well to check out emptywheel's Michael Ledeen's "Wilderness of Mirrors".

One item, however, is worth repeating. Last November, Greenwald (with me in a walk-on role) noted that Ledeen had been brazenly lying when he became one of the first of the revisionists to claim that he had never urged the invasion of Iraq. Worth repeating because of what Ledeen said in his "Tick, Tock" interview with Kathryn Jean Lopez at the National Review Online over this past Labor Day weekend:

Lopez: Why should I think "Iran" when I hear "al Qaeda"?

Ledeen: Because they've been working together since 1994, and we are now up to our uvulas in evidence showing Iran's support for al Qaeda in Iraq. The 9/11 Commission -- as Tom Joscelyn has written for years -- found striking evidence of the al Qaeda/Iran partnership, starting with the sensational discovery that Imad Mughniyah, the operational chief of Hezbollah, was on the plane that took some of the 9/11 terrorists out of Saudi Arabia, en route to the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Lopez: So does bin Laden and crew work for Iran? Have they always?

Ledeen: I don't know about "always." Certainly they have worked closely with Iran for quite a while. I think the Iranian domination of al Qaeda started when we destroyed al Qaeda in Afghanistan. The key leaders ran to Iran and have mostly been there ever since.

Lopez: Was Iran involved in 9/11?

Ledeen: I don't know. It's possible, but certainly unproven. The most tantalizing factoid is the story of Ramzi bin al Shibh, the logistics officer for the 9/11 operation. He went to Iran for a month in late December, 2000, and then he returned to Iran less than a week before 9/11.

Sly that Michael is. Remarks like his - only without the "unproven" part - will certainly be part of the final propaganda barrage if the day does come when the Cheney-Bush cabal chooses to lay down some bombs on Iran. They can then cite the language from the Authorization to Use Military Force passed on September 18, 2001, to wit:

Section 2 - Authorization For Use of United States Armed Forces

(a) IN GENERAL- That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons, in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

Joining Ledeen Monday for the book forum will be former CIA director R. James Woolsey and General Jack Keane, U.S. Army (retired), the latter, with NeoCon Fred Kagan, one of the inventors of the "surge" in Iraq.

(This is a repost of something I wrote on my own site today. I mentioned I might do some of that, and figured this wouldn't be a bad place to start. For another Kos diary on it, Scientician would be a good bet.)

Sometimes I hate being right.

But, yeah, I was right.

Here's me, a little less than a month ago:

For those who are unsure, this is how it's going to go down. Policy papers will come out of this, they will all ("reluctantly") justify and advocate war with Iran. Some books will follow from these same people fleshing it out and saying bad things about Iran. That will provide the scholaresque justification that the other right-wing henchthingies need to get on board with their various blogs, journals, and newspaper opinion columns.

Here's George Packer now, quoting Barnett Rubin:

The National Review, the conservatives' official game day program for the war in Iraq, has finally jumped the shark.  Like a long-running sitcom with declining ratings, aging stars and bereft of new ideas, the magazine has been reduced to bizarre stunts in a desperate plea for attention.  This week, that desperation took the form of Michael Ledeen slandering the families of American troops going off to war in Iraq. And that was just for openers.

National Review and its "The Corner" blog in particular are always good for a laugh. I decided to let them know how funny (cough...moronic) they are by e-mailing a response to a recent post by AEI's Michael Ledeen regarding the recent saber-rattling between Australia and Iran. To wit:

"I've been reluctant to link to it, since it comes from al-BBC (you know, the ones that recently advertised for information about "troop movements" so they could broadcast it to anyone interested), but this link is to The Australian, so I decided to post it." (Source)

I assume I can expect a virulent denunciation of Fox News and any Corner posters who reference Fox News to be forthcoming, replete with race-baiting al-Fox News neologisms.

If your memory is foggy, I suggest that you check http://en.wikipedia.org/...

Eagerly Awaiting Your Reply,
Steagle of Death Metal's Real Name Went Here

The right wing Associated Press and Fox News are reporting this morning that Iran is developing plans to attack British nuclear power plants in the event of strikes against Iran.

The source for this inflamatory propaganda is a hitherto obscure Brussels think tank "privately" established in 2002, the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center.  Who founded it and for what propaganda purpose is even more obscure.  The person fronting the think tank, Claude Moniquet, has been described as "Michael Ledeen with a French accent" who "sells to the highest bidder".

Let's walk back the cat on another piece of pro-war propaganda from the usual suspects.

That's what Henry Waxman wants to know.  He's already subpoened her, while she remains "dis-inclined" to honor that subpeona claiming that it is a "seperation of powers" issue - but since new revelations have surfaced that a state department analyst clearly identified the Niger documents as "probably a hoax" and "clearly a forgery" three months before the President's 2003 State of the Union address Rice and the State Dept have apparently blocked his access to Congressional Investigators - that view seems spurious.

It's one thing to dubiously claim that Executive Priviledge extends not simply to communications directly with the President, as has been the historical precedent, and that they now extend all the way to communications between the CIA and NSC, it's quite another to willinging obstruct a lawful Congressional Investigation by refusing to grant them access to witnesses.

It seems the Diva of Dissembling is at it yet again.

In 2002, with a nearly pure sense of disbelief, I realized Team Bush had decided to actually assume the role of side man to Chalabis Con-Man version of Iraq.  This decision transformed what should have been a cocktail party con, into a three act drama.   And now, Act III - Iraqidamerung or...  Sadir Rising.  

The particulars of how we got here are well known, but I would beg all your patience while I rewind some of those events and review them in light of a Con Game turned Drama.

Yesterday,  Sadir formaly announced Act III of the Drama.   The Real Beginning of the Iraq War.  
Act I:  The Iraq Con (1993-03)  
Act II: The Iraq Show (2001-2007)
Act III:  The Iraq War (2006-2008)

I don't know if this has been diaried before. If so, I will delete.

We are dancing around the real issue with Wilson/Plame.

The real issue outlined by Dave Lindorff .. here

Now maybe special counsel Patrick Fitzgerald and what passes for journalists in the mainstream media can get down to the real business of finding out

...

... meeting occurred in December 2001 in Rome, and included Michael Ledeen, an associate of Defense Department Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith and a key figure in the White House's war-propaganda program, Larry Franklin, a top Defense Intelligence Agency Middle East analyst who later pleaded guilty to passing classified information to two employees of the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), convicted Iraqi bank swindler Ahmed Chalabi, then head of the CIA-created Iraqi National Congress, and Harold Rhode of the sinister Defense Department Office of Special Plans, that office set up by the White House and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld ...