October 22, 2004

  • Hey, check it out: Seymour Hersh's 'stovepipe' narrative turns out to have been true. At least according to Senator Carl Levin, (D-MI) Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, who investigated this claim.

    'Stovepipe' refers to the the Office of Special Plans created in the Dept. of Defense, headed up by Doug Feith. They 'stovepiped' intelligence from the DoD to the white house based on how well it could be used to support policy, without the usual vetting that takes place to find out if it's actually worth anything. In other words, the administration stuck a guy into the DoD intelligence system to pluck out intel that would make it look like Iraq was involved in 9/11, or had connections to Al Qaeda. That's the 'intelligence failure' you hear so much about.