by Howard P. Hart
27 August 2010
Many years ago I attended a series of Headquarters briefings for out-going CIA Chiefs of Station. Our main speaker was Richard Helms, then the Agency’s Director and one of the lions of American foreign policy in the 1960’s and 70’s. A man who was subsequently crucified in the Nixon catastrophe. Dick was essentially giving us our instructions, and in my mind his most telling directive was the quiet statement: “Ring the Bell.” Telling us to sing out when we apprehended a major disaster in the offing.
It’s time to ring the bell on Iraq.
Briefly put, in a matter of months Iran will emerge the unchallenged military and economic power dominating the area from Lebanon to Pakistan. It will control Iraq, and be in a position to shut off all oil supplies from the Persian Gulf. It will be free to provide extensive assistance to the Taliban in Afghanistan, thus ensuring a NATO defeat in that country. It will be in a position to provide crucial support to radical Islamic elements in Pakistan – which may well result in the collapse of that already shaky nuclear-armed government. It will be free to radically increase its support to a variety of terrorist organizations targeting the US. And, in conjunction with well-armed radical Palestinian forces that already exist on Israel's borders, it will pose the greatest threat ever faced by Israel. A threat that I do not believe Israel could survive without direct US military intervention.
READ THE BALANCE OF THE PIECE BY THIS CIA VETERAN
Phi Beta Iota: Not even close. The time to ring the bell was when Dick Cheney was cooking the books and George “Slam Dunk” Tenet was prostituting his office against the public interest. 935 documented lies were told to the UN, the US public, foreign leaders, and foreign publics, and CIA, in theory the pinnacle of integrity and “the truth shall set you free,” sat silent, committing treason by acquiescence. Iran sent Ahmed Chalabi and sucked the US eno-conservatives into an elective war against Iraq and an elective invasion of Afghanistan. Colin Powell lost it–he went along or today he would be President and we would be waging peace, successfully, world-wide. If there is a bell to be rung, it is on the collapse of the Republic, the corruption of the two-party tyranny, and the ineptitude of government as now constructed. We invite one and all to attend the Coffee Party Convention and the Constitutional Convention being moderated by Lawrence Lessig at the end of September 2010. INTEGRITY. One word. Time to get it back. The lesson for multinational alliances is that US leadership cannot be trusted to tell the truth; that US intelligence cannot be relied upon; and that a truly multinational C4I, mobility, and logistic grid is needed if we are to create a prosperous world at peace.
