Imperial Hubris

Seems there is an anonymously penned book, Imperial Hubris: Why the West Is Losing the War on Terrorism, due out on the fourth of July, and it is causing quite a stir. And rightfully so. A report in today's Guardian UK reveals that Anonymous is a senior, currently serving intelligence official who has been "centrally involved in the hunt for Bin Laden." I'm not informed enough at this point to even speculate on who Anonymous may be, but he is most definitely high enough up the chain of command as to blow this issue wide open.

(Pure, unadulterated, wild speculation: is this why Tenet resigned when he did?)

Imperial Hubris is the latest in a relentless stream of books attacking the administration in election year. Most of the earlier ones, however, were written by embittered former officials. This one is unprecedented in being the work of a serving official with nearly 20 years experience in counter-terrorism who is still part of the intelligence establishment.

The fact that he has been allowed to publish, albeit anonymously and without naming which agency he works for, may reflect the increasing frustration of senior intelligence officials at the course the administration has taken.

Indeed. For some time now, I've been talking about the war being waged within our government, with, it seems, State and CIA in active opposition to the WHite House, VP's office, and the pentagon. The Bush team has been trying to lay blame, for everything, at the feet of Central Intelligence. And while there may indeed have been some faulty intelligence gathering and dissemination going on before 9/11, what has come since, in regards to the run-up to the war in Iraq, has not been a matter of poor intelligence, but rather the cherry-picking, the spinning, the slanting, and the misrepresentation of intelligence in order to serve a preexisting goal: to invade Iraq.

In Anonymous' words:

Anonymous does not try to veil his contempt for the Bush White House and its policies. His book describes the Iraq invasion as "an avaricious, premeditated, unprovoked war against a foe who posed no immediate threat but whose defeat did offer economic advantage.

"Our choice of timing, moreover, shows an abject, even wilful failure to recognise the ideological power, lethality and growth potential of the threat personified by Bin Laden, as well as the impetus that threat has been given by the US-led invasion and occupation of Muslim Iraq."

In his view, the US missed its biggest chance to capture the al-Qaida leader at Tora Bora in the Afghan mountains in December 2001. Instead of sending large numbers of his own troops, General Tommy Franks relied on surrogates who proved to be unreliable.

"For my money, the game was over at Tora Bora," Anonymous said.

Yesterday President Bush repeated his assertion that Bin Laden was cornered and that there was "no hole or cave deep enough to hide from American justice".

Perhaps the worst part is the confirmation Anonymous brings to some of our worst fears about Bush's complete fumbling of the fight against international terrorist organizations like al Qaeda: by hijacking the events of September 11th and trying to use the "War on Terror" as a cover under which the administration could invade and occupy Iraq, a plan in the works for many years prior to the attacks on America, the greedy fools have place Americans everywhere at risk.

Anonymous, who published an analysis of al-Qaida last year called Through Our Enemies' Eyes, thinks it quite possible that another devastating strike against the US could come during the election campaign, not with the intention of changing the administration, as was the case in the Madrid bombing, but of keeping the same one in place.

"I'm very sure they can't have a better administration for them than the one they have now," he said.

"One way to keep the Republicans in power is to mount an attack that would rally the country around the president."...

...Anonymous believes Mr Bush is taking the US in exactly the direction Bin Laden wants, towards all-out confrontation with Islam under the banner of spreading democracy.

He said: "It's going to take 10,000-15,000 dead Americans before we say to ourselves: 'What is going on'?"