Arrogance and its progeny

This piece by Sidney Blumenthal is a healthy reminder of what can result from the unbelievable arrogance that intoxicated the "neoconservative" architects of the Iraq War: The Bush orthodoxy is in shreds Guardian (UK) 05/27/04.

At a conservative thinktank in downtown Washington, and across the Potomac at the Pentagon, FBI agents have begun paying quiet calls on prominent neoconservatives, who are being interviewed in an investigation of potential espionage, according to intelligence sources. Who gave Ahmed Chalabi classified information about the plans of the US government and military?

The Iraqi neocon favourite, tipped to lead his liberated country post-invasion, has been identified by the CIA and Defence Intelligence Agency as an Iranian double-agent, passing secrets to that citadel of the "axis of evil" for decades. All the while the neocons cosseted, promoted and arranged for more than $30m in Pentagon payments to the George Washington manque of Iraq. In return, he fed them a steady diet of disinformation and in the run-up to the war sent various exiles to nine nations' intelligence agencies to spread falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction. If the administration had wanted other material to provide a rationale for invasion, no doubt that would have been fabricated. Either Chalabi perpetrated the greatest con since the Trojan horse, or he was the agent of influence for the most successful intelligence operation conducted by Iran, or both. ...

Last week, Powell declared "it turned out that the sourcing was inaccurate and wrong and, in some cases, deliberately misleading. And for that I'm disappointed, and I regret it". But who had "deliberately" misled him? He did not say. Now the FBI is investigating espionage, fraud and, by implication, treason.

Buried in their self-righteousness, they joined with Ahmed Chalabi, a conman without a conscience, to start a war that has been a disaster for America on the basis of lies.  Justice hasn't caught up with many of them yet.  But the police sirens are beginning to be audible in the distance.

And it's a whole lot more serious than oral sex with an intern.