Ron Suskind has written a revealing novel about the Bush Administration‘s attitude towards terrorism and American politics in The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism. Suskind won the Pulitzer for A Hope in the Unseen and sets a pretty level playing field for the Bush Administration’s War on Terrorism revealing new insight to the strategy used by Bush/Cheney to “secure” war against Iraq.
Suskind brings many issues of concern to the forefront regarding the Bush Administration’s actions in taking the country to war. I believe Suskind has clearly documented actions by Cheney as lessons learned from Nixon’s Watergate. Cheney served Nixon as White House Staff Assistant in 1971 and Deputy Assistant to the President from 1974–1975.
During Watergate Nixon’s inner circle kept the President “in the know” but as Vice President Cheney has acted to deliberately keep W. Bush out of the loop for political and potentially legal reasons. Suskind details the odd relationship developed by Bush in order to protect himself.
The 2% rule.
What does a sitting President do with a 2% approval rating with African American voters in a post-Katrina America? With midterm elections on the horizon Bush simply extended (a bit early) the voting rights act. That was the most strategic advice the GOP could offer? Did they want to hit….say 4%? This proves to be an excellent example of the political extremism underway in the Bush White House to show how the story and plans for war would be developed to further a political agenda.
Knifing the baby
Immediately following 9/11 Bush became accustomed to getting his political way with America, the mainstream media and government. History has shown this leads Presidents down dark paths. When British intelligence (MI5 & MI6) notified the US that a plan was underway by Al Qaeda to blow up airplanes over the Atlantic Bush asked British PM Tony Blair to give up the terrorists to American authorities. Blair refused saying British Intelligence had 2,000 operatives working this case for over a year. They were eavesdropping on their ring of terrorists and looked to grab higher players within 30 days.
Bush then instructed Cheney to grab the CIA‘s #4 executive and ship him to Iraq to quietly arrest the terrorist leader Rashid Rauf who Blair had identified but would not give up. Again Cheney learned long ago from Watergate how to not ‘over brief’ a President. Shades of the Saturday Night Massacre?
When British Intelligence learned of this arrest they knew the US just knifed the baby forcing them to act quickly grab whoever they could as word of the arrest was spreading. Even American intelligence didn’t know about the plan. It was limited to just Cheney’s national security team to protect Bush from having to admit any culpability. On Wednesday August 9th Cheney announcement that intelligence agencies in Europe ‘successfully’ thwarted a terrorist plot against America. A perfect August surprise for the GOP entering the fall elections. British Intelligence officers threw ashtrays against walls in their offices upon learning of the arrests and Cheney’s press announcement.
3 strikes but never out
Rafid Ahmed Alwan, reportedly claiming to work for Saddam’s mobile weapons laboratory fled to Germany seeking asylum. He claimed to be involved with Saddam’s mobile weapons program. The Germans debriefed him over a year but did not permit US intelligence to interview him.
Known as “Curveball” by German intelligence he began to alter his story about working for Saddam. The German’s did not believe his story after holding him for one year yet the Bush Administration used his previous statements in Colin Powell‘s UN presentation. The German government’s position is that Alwan is still unreliable.
Roll your own
Tahir Jalil Habbush was Iraqi’s Intelligence chief who informed US and British intelligence agents that Iraq had in-fact no WMDs during America’s ramp up for war. Clearly this was not the news Cheney’s team was looking for. But Habbush also expressed to American Intelligence officers his desire to flee Iraq with Suskind revealing that the Bush Administration wanted Habbush to ‘earn’ his freedom.
What followed was the famous Habbush letter. Suskind reveals Cheney ordered the CIA in 2003 to backdate a forged letter and share it with known conservative British journalist Con Coughlin. The letter falsely stated Iraq had WMDs and that Mohammed Atta trained in Iraq. The Cheney team hoped this would be the proof to further justify invasion. But the letter’s planned ‘finding’ was upstaged a bit by the capture of Sadam Hussian. Ultimately proved to be a fake within a month Habbush was given 5 million dollars and safe passage to Jordan. This has been examined in detail by many organizations including Salon.com, The Washington Post and MSNBC.