Captain Eric H. May, the Internet intelligence writer, finds much cause for optimism in the 2007 NIE, which has undermined the Bush administration's plans for war on Iran. Could it be that US intelligence is working for the American people again, and not the neocon agenda?
The 2007 NIE: Disloyalty to Royalty
By Captain Eric H. May
Military Correspondent
Professional Perspective
"Baghdad has chemical and biological weapons ... if left unchecked, it probably will have a nuclear weapon during this decade." -- 2002 NIE
After 9/11, US intelligence services bent over backwards -- and forwards -- at the whim of the White House. The result was the bastardized analysis of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), which invented an Iraqi WMD program to justify the neocon global war program. The Senate took the newborn causus belli to heart and gave George Bush permission to wage imperial war for the overt reasons of American security and Iraqi freedom -- and the covert reasons of oil and Israel.
The pre-war intel community's meretricious manners made it the perfect twin to the pre-war mainstream media, who are now widely and justly mocked as presstitutes. In a debauched delirium of patriotic purpose, US intel and info incestuously mated, so that when we the people watched network news, we were being programmed by CBS/CIA, NBC/NSA and FOX/FBI. The presstitute priestess was New York Times reporter Judith Miller, who embedded herself with White House apparatchik Scooter Libby as she conceived the Iraqi WMD story.
Personal Perspective
"To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth." -- John 18:37
As a former Army military intelligence officer I learned in the 1980s that I was supposed to speak truth to power, even when power didn't want to hear it. As a former NBC editorial writer, I learned in the 1990s that I was supposed to inform the people, even when they didn't want to be informed. When we started the Iraq War in 2003, I was writing military analysis for the Houston Chronicle, and I published an essay that offended my military and media peers: I predicted that Iraq would turn into a "quicksand war" in which we would fail to achieve victory, but might well achieve a Third World War.
For my effrontery, I was denounced as a lunatic, banished from the mainstream media and driven to the alternative media of the Internet. Freedom to be right has cost me dearly: I continue to publish top-rate military analysis, nowadays to a sizable World Wide Web readership, but I haven't made a dime doing it. All has been lost, except honor.
Praise for Peers
"We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." -- 2007 NIE
Since last week's release of the 2007 NIE, I've been in high spirits to find that my former intelligence colleagues have decided to talk truth to power, the way we were trained to do. By failing to support the White House lie of Iranian WMD danger this year they have in some measure atoned for supporting the White House lie of Iraqi WMD danger five years ago. They have provided much-needed leadership to other US professionals who have looked the other way when they should have been looking to their duty. I don't think it is mere coincidence that the NIE was shortly afterwards followed by a New York Times bombshell about the CIA destroying evidence to cover up Bush administration torture policies.
I'm sure that behind the closed doors, King George is livid that professionals who were once compromised have become uncompromising in revealing unpleasant truths that undercut his prerogatives as our newfangled "unitary executive." His neocon minions are already attacking the new NIE as disloyalty. Call my opinion revolutionary if you wish, but I believe that disloyalty to royalty is all-American, and I hope that King George has not seen the last of it.
* * *
Captain May is a former Army military intelligence and public affairs officer, as well as a former NBC editorial writer. His political and military analyses have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Houston Chronicle and Military Intelligence Magazine. For his homepage and schedule of upcoming interviews, refer to:
http://www.spiritone.com/~pazuu/pow-mia/Ghost_Troop_Captain_Eric_H_May.htm
Original: The 2007 NIE: Disloyalty to Royalty