THIS FAR AND NO FURTHER
A Timeline of Events Surrounding the Radical Right's Attempt to Subvert American Democracy
Written and Compiled by Black Max
2001
October 2001
- October: Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, and Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith set up a special intelligence operation in the Pentagon to "think through how the various terrorist organizations relate to each other and...state sponsors," in Feith's description.
Anti-terrorism and homeland security
Their approach echoes the "Team B" strategy that conservatives had used in the past: establishing a separate entity to offer alternative intelligence analyses to the CIA. Conservatives had done this in 1976, criticizing and intimidating the agency over its estimates of Soviet military strength, and again in 1998, arguing for the necessity of missile defense. (Wolfowitz had participated in both projects; the latter was run by Rumsfeld.) This time, the new operation, headed by Perle protege Abram Shulsky, reassesses intelligence already collected by the CIA along with information from Iraqi defectors and, as Feith will remark in mid-2003, "came up with some interesting observations about the linkages between Iraq and al-Qaeda." In August 2002, Feith brings the unit to Langley to brief the CIA about its findings. If the separate intelligence unit wasn't enough to challenge the CIA, Rumsfeld also begins publicly discussing the creation of a new Pentagon position, an undersecretary for intelligence, who would rival the CIA director and diminish the authority of the agency. (The New Republic) - October: A 70-page French intelligence report claims:
Islamist terrorism
"The financial network of bin Laden, as well as his network of investments, is similar to the network put in place in the 1980s by BCCI for its fraudulent operations, often with the same people (former directors and cadres of the bank and its affiliates, arms merchants, oil merchants, Saudi investors). The dominant trait of bin Laden's operations is that of a terrorist network backed up by a vast financial structure." The BCCI was the largest Muslim bank in the world before it collapsed in 1991. A senior US investigator later says US agencies are looking into the ties outlined by the French because "they just make so much sense, and so few people from BCCI ever went to jail. BCCI was the mother and father of terrorist financing operations." The report identifies dozens of companies and individuals who were involved with BCCI and were found to be dealing with bin Laden after the bank collapsed. Many went on to work in banks and charities identified by the US and others as supporting al-Qaeda. The role of Saudi billionaire Khalid bin Mahfouz in supporting bin Laden is emphasized in the report. In 1995 bin Mahfouz paid a $225 million fine in a settlement with US prosecutors for his role in the BCCI scandal. (CCR) - October:
9/11 attacks
FBI sources report that hundreds of hijacker e-mails have been recovered, many giving "operational details" of the attacks. However, in April 2002, FBI Director Mueller says no documentation of the 9/11 plot has been found. By September 2002, the American media is reporting that none of the e-mails sent and received by the hijackers have been recovered. The texts of some e-mails sent by Mohamed Atta from Germany are published a few months later. (CCR) - October: The US hunt for Osama bin Laden in Southwest Asia is precipitating a political crisis for Pakistan's Pervez Musharraf, already presiding over an unsteady government, as well as raising the chances of a nuclear conflict between Pakistan and India.
Anti-terrorism and homeland security
Pakistanis protest the mounting civilian casualties in Afghanistan with violent street demonstrations, sometimes led by fanatical Islamist groups with ties to al-Qaeda. Internally, Musharraf is under fire from members of the ISI, his intelligence agency, and high-ranking military officers. Seymour Hersh writes, "These unintended consequences of the President's decision to wage war on the Taliban government in Afghanistan created a serious rift between the American government's intelligence and diplomatic experts on South Asia and the decision makers of the Bush administration." A Pakistani diplomat tells Hersh the situation in his country is "explosive." But Bush administration officials call the situation dangerous, but manageable. "Musharraf has done a good job," says one senior military planner. "He's put the hard-liners in a box and locked it." A second Pakistani diplomat says, "Nobody's going to move against Musharraf unless there's an uprising. How to prevent the uprising is to stop dropping bombs on civilian targets." Musharraf's decision to replace hard-line military and intelligence officials with loyalists is somewhat effective, but, as one former Pakistani diplomat says, "To remove the top two or three doesn't matter at all. The philosophy remains." He describes the ISI as "a parallel government of its own. If you go through the officer list, almost all of the ISI regulars would say, of the Taliban, 'They are my boys.'" - Many Pakistani officials believe Musharraf is also trying to placate the fundamentalists by ignoring, or merely pretending to investigate, terrorist attacks. Many of these are attacks allegedly sponsored by the ISI on Indian targets in the disputed province of Kashmir, which, though dominated by India, has a mostly Muslim population and is a powerfully emotional issue for ISI and Taliban fundamentalists alike. "[T]he Bush administration is so focused on the target and the objective [bin Laden] that it's lost its peripheral vision," says a former high-ranking Pakistani government official. "If Musharraf is toppled in a coup, or fears he'll be toppled, or, as a price for not being toppled, gives the ISI permission to ratchet it up in Kashmir, that's very dangerous."
- In the US Senate, Democrat Joe Biden tells the Council on Foreign Relations that if Musharraf's regime collapses, the US "would find ourselves with a whole hell of a lot more forces in the region than we have now. ...How much longer does the bombing continue? Because we're going to pay an escalating price in the Muslim world. We're going to pay an escalating price in the Muslim world. And that in fact is going to make the aftermath of our 'victory' more difficult.... I hope to God it sends sooner rather than later." And he warns Musharraf, "[N]otwithstanding the fact that we need you very much right now...if you are going to continue to foment the terror that does exist in Kashmir, then you are operating against your own near-term interests, because that very viper can turn on you." The Bush administration turns to Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who labels Biden's remarks "completely irresponsible" and indirectly accuses Biden of treason and collusion: "[the] American people want us to bring these terrorists to justice. They do not want comments that may bring comfort to our enemies." While Hastert is flinging accusations, some of the US's most experienced South Asia experts have little faith in Musharraf's ability to control his military, and are very concerned about the disposition of Pakistan's nuclear arsenal in the event of a coup. They worry that, among other calamities, a cadre of fundamentalist officers may try to seize control of a warhead. (Seymour Hersh)
- October: Enron's stock price falls below $20.
Oil profiteering and the "oiligarchy"
At the same time, George W. Bush is being prepped to pressure India's prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during an upcoming November 9 summit in Washington. Just before Vajpayee arrives, however, the plans for Bush to intervene on Enron's behalf with the Indian government are scrubbed. Enron will be less than four weeks away from filing bankruptcy at that time, and the US press is barking at Enron's heels with numerous investigations into Enron's instability and its raft of illegal business practices. Instead of providing even more help, Commerce Secretary Evans announces that his department has refused to help Enron maintain its ratings with the country's major credit-rating concerns -- Standard and Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch -- in an attempt to put some belated distance between the administration and the impending Enron collapse. Such an attempt is doomed to failure. Too many administration officials, including Bush and Cheney, have too many intimate ties to Enron. Too many decisions have been made directly favoring Enron and other energy merchants while costing US taxpayers and energy consumers millions, if not billions, of dollars. Bush's Treasury Department, under Paul O'Neill, had worked to derail Clinton-era crackdowns on offshore "tax havens," a move designed to benefit Enron, Halliburton, and other corporations with close ties to the Bush administration. And the administration is forced to defend its post-9/11 attempt to grant three corporations, General Electric, IBM, and Enron, huge tax rebates due to supposed "overpayment" of the federal alternative minimum tax. Enron would have received $254 million if the legislation, killed by the Democratically-controlled Senate, had passed. O'Neill's agreement with the Cayman Islands that no bank-law tightening would need to be undertaken until 2004 comes under heavy fire. (Kevin Phillips) - October: Enron CEO Ken Lay calls both Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill and Commerce Secretary Don Evans to discuss his company's impending bankruptcy and ask for help from the administration.
Oil profiteering and the "oiligarchy"
Both Enron and White House officials deny that the administration provides any help to the floundering corporation, though the news of Lay's contacts with O'Neill and Evans does not leak to the press until January 2002, and the administration does nothing while Enron systematically steals millions from its employees' pension fund and illegally unloads billions of dollars' worth of worthless Enron stocks. (David Corn) - October: As a means to alleviate the slumping economy, Bush and his economic advisors ram through Congress a repeal of the corporate alternative minimum tax,
Bush's economic policies
which sets a floor on taxes so that corporations can't use accounting tricks to avoid paying taxes on their profits. The only effect of this "economic stimulus" is to allow corporations to skip out on paying taxes. Worse, the bill repeals the tax retroactively, which means giving corporations refunds from federal coffers for taxes paid over the previous fifteen years. IBM, which had paid only 3.4% of their $6 billion in profits in 2000, received a refund of $1.4 billion. Enron, which paid no taxes whatsoever in four of the last five years, received $254 million in refunded taxes. General Electric, which paid a measly 1.5% of their profits in taxes the previous year, received $833 million in refunds. House Republican Majority Leader Dick Armey says that extending unemployment and health benefits for American workers is "not...commensurate with the American spirit...." but apparently believes that sending wealthy corporation immense tax refunds is the American thing to do. At least one lobbyist, Kenneth Kies, says that he wasn't just lobbying for his corporate clients, but for the benefit of the country, by pushing for the corporate tax refunds. Paul Waldman notes that the alternative minimum tax repeal was so heinous that when political consultants held focus groups to gauge reactions to the plan, the groups "literally refused to believe it was being described accurately to them." The rest of the "stimulus package" is nothing more than a conglomeration of corporate pork, subsidies, and favors for the rich, causing an outcry even from such stalwart conservatives as the Weekly Standard's David Brooks, who says the bill is little more than "redistributing federal dollars from their people to our people." (Center for Tax Justice/Paul Waldman) - October 2001 - September 2002:
Anti-terrorism and homeland security
Nine Army linguists, including six trained to speak Arabic, are dismissed from the military's Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, because they are gay. At the same time, the military claims it is facing a critical shortage of translators and interpreters for the war on terrorism. The Miami Herald comments: "The message is unmistakable: We find gay people more frightening than Osama bin Laden, whose stated goal is our destruction." (CCR) - Early October:
War in Afghanistan
The US begins using the Shahbaz air force base and other bases in Pakistan in their attacks against Afghanistan. However, because of public opposition in Pakistan to US support, it is falsely claimed the US is there for purely logistical and defensive purposes. Such bases in Pakistan become a link in a chain of US military outposts in Central Asia. Other countries also falsely maintain that such bases are not being used for military operations in Afghanistan. (CCR) - Early October:
Bush's energy policies
Dick Cheney is briefed on the Dabhol power plant situation for his meeting with India's foreign minister. (David Corn) - October 1: The New Yorker gives an inside look at the ongoing 9/11 investigation.
9/11 attacks
"A number of intelligence officials have raised questions about Osama bin Laden's capabilities. 'This guy sits in a cave in Afghanistan and he's running this operation?' one CIA official asked. 'It's so huge. He couldn't have done it alone' A senior military officer [says] that because of the visas and other documentation needed to infiltrate team members into the United States a major foreign intelligence service might also have been involved." These ideas contradict the usual public statements by officials that bin Laden was the ultimate mastermind. (CCR) - October 1: Bush administration officials suddenly step up the amount and intensity of warnings about chemical and biological weapons.
Anti-terrorism and homeland security
White House chief of staff Andrew Card says, "I'm not trying to be an alarmist, but we know that these terrorist organizations, like al-Qaeda, run by Osama bin Laden and others, have probably found the means to use biological or chemical warfare." GOP Representative Henry Hyde says biological weapons "scare" him more than nuclear weapons because they can be brought into the country "rather easily." Rumsfeld, Ashcroft and others give similar warnings. Just three days later, anthrax attacks become big news. (CCR) - October 2: The US Senate,
US military
without debate, votes unanimously to fund a $60 billion missile defense system that, in Lewis Lapham's words, "couldn't hit its celestial targets and offered no defense against the deadly weapons (smallpox virus, dynamite stuffed into a barrel of nuclear waste) likely to be hand-delivered by terrorists driving rented speedboats or stolen trucks." Democrat Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, explains the absence of discussion of the system, previously the target of huge criticism, by saying "We have no need to create dissent while we need unity." Later in October the House will pass a huge economic stimulus bill proffered by the Bush administration that gave the bulk of the $101 billion in stimulus funds to the wealthiest of US business interests -- $1.4 billion to IBM, $833 million to GM, $671 million to GE, etc. Republican Dick Armey, the House majority leader, justifies the giveaway by saying, "This country is in the middle of the war. Now is not the time to provoke spending confrontations with our Commander in Chief." Democrats apparently fail to notice that all the calls for "unity" were for programs advocated by the administration and by Congressional Republicans; no Democratic legislation was the beneficiary of this sudden feeling of togetherness. The unity is strictly one-sided. (Lewis Lapham) - October 2: Days before the anthrax attacks begin, a letter is sent to a researcher in Fort Detrick, Maryland (USAMRIID).
Domestic terrorism
The letter is addressed to Dr. Ayaad Assaad, a Muslim anthrax researcher who was born in Egypt. The unsigned letter calls Assaad a "'potential terrorist,' with a grudge against the United States and the knowledge to wage biological warfare against his adopted country." This is the latest in a series of attacks against Assaad, which include anonymous long hateful poems about him in the early 1990s. The author of the letter says he is a former colleague of Assaad. The letter seems like an attempt to frame Assaad for the anthrax attacks about to come. (CCR)
USA Patriot Act rammed through Congress
- October 2:
Attack on civil liberties
The "anti-terrorism" Patriot Act is introduced in Congress, but is not well received by all. The next day, Senate Majority Leader and future anthrax target Tom Daschle, a Democrat, says he doubts the Senate will take up this bill in the one week timetable the administration wants. As head of the Senate, Daschle has great power to block or slow passage of the bill. Attorney General Ashcroft accuses Senate Democrats of dragging their feet. On October 4, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman and future anthrax target Patrick Leahy accuses the Bush administration of reneging on an agreement on the anti-terrorist bill. Leahy, a Democrat, is in a key position to block or slow the bill. Some warn that "lawmakers are overlooking constitutional flaws in their rush to meet the administration's timetable." Two days later, Ashcroft complains about "the rather slow pace...over his request for law enforcement powers.... Hard feelings remain." The anthrax letters to Daschle and Leahy are sent out on October 9 and difficulties in passing the Act continue. Many observers view the anthrax mailings as a possible method of coercing the cooperation of Leahy and Daschle in ramming the Patriot Act through Congress. (CCR) - October 2: Undersecretary of Defense Pete Aldridge issues a memo warning defense contractors not to talk to the press about the kinds of contracts they are receiving from the Pentagon, and to be guarded in "all public statements, press releases, and communications."
Military-industrial complex
Air Force senior acquisitions official Darleen Druyun follows up Aldridge's memo with orders forbidding anyone in the Air Force acquisition community to talk to the media about any of their programs. (At the end of 2002, Druyun would leave the government to work as a high-level official at Boeing.) Soon after, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz forbids all DoD personnel, as well as those working in corporations affiliated with DoD, to talk about their work to the press or even in public. (Stephen Pizzo/Daily Misleader, Federation of American Scientists [Aldridge memo], Federation of American Scientists [Wolfowitz memo])
"I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan Airport." -- George W. Bush, October 3, 2001
"We need to counter the shockwave of the evildoer by having individual rate cuts accelerated and by thinking about tax rebates." -- George W. Bush, October 4, 2001
- October 3: Prince Sultan of Saudi Arabia, appearing at a joint news conference with a chummy Donald Rumsfeld,
9/11 attacks
assures his listeners that his country had nothing to do with financing any of the terrorists who struck on 9/11 and does not support Islamic extremism. Telephone intercepts made by the NSA tell a different story. The Saudi government, working primarily through the governor of Riyadh, Prince Salman, has funnelled millions to a range of extremist groups. "We know that Salman was supporting all of the causes," says an intelligence official with knowledge of the intercepts. Other intercepts and related intelligence prove that Saudi officials, and perhaps the government as a whole, has financed Osama bin Laden for years, since at least 1996. But Bush stands by his statement of September 24 when, in spite of Saudi recalcitrance in allowing the US to interview suspects, access data, or trace financial records, he told the American people that the Saudis are "nothing but cooperative" in helping wage the war on terror. On October 2, Rumsfeld stood next to the Saudi defense minister, Prince Sultan, and lied about the Saudis providing lists of 9/11 suspects (the Saudis refused). In return for American duplicity, the Saudis allow the US to use a command-and-control center, built before the Gulf War, in the pending air war against Afghanistan's Taliban. - One reason why the Saudis are so duplicitous in their own right is fear -- fear of the destruction of their oil fields. CIA studies from the mid-1980s show that within days, coordinated terrorist strikes could take the Saudis completely off-line for two years. After 9/11, those fears mount. A former intelligence officer depicts the Saudis as nervously "sitting on a keg of dynamite [the oil reserves]. They're petrified that someone is going to light the fuse." A prominent Middle Eastern oil magnate says, "The United States is hostage to the stability of the Saudi system. It's time to start facing the truth. The war was declared by bin Laden, but there are thousands of bin Ladens. They are setting the game -- the agenda. It's a new form of war. This fabulous military machine you have is completely useless. ...I've talked to these people [the Saudi leadership]. I've listened to them. People like me have been deceiving you. We talk about how you don't understand Islam, but it's a vanilla analysis. We try to please you, but we've been aggrieved for years." He says the terrorists, if they choose to carry out a few well-placed strikes in Saudi Arabia, will drive the price of oil "to 100$ a barrel. ...This is a complicated issue and it's hard work. You need to understand the subtleties. But there is no one, I can assure you, from George Bush to Colin Powell who can sit with you and give you an analysis of the Islamic world, and they're the decision makers. I'm afraid that this will reach a point where no American will be able to walk the streets in a fundamentalist society." A coup is always a likelihood. "[T]wenty or thirty fundamentalist enlisted men [could] take charge," says a veteran American diplomat. "How would the kingdom deal with the shock of something ruthless, small, highly motivated, and of great velocity? ...The Saudis have been indulged for so many decades. They are so spoiled. They've always had it their way. There's hardly anything we could say that would impede the 'majestic instancy' of their progress." Referring to the captives who became the elite troops of the Ottoman Empire, he says, "We're their janissaries." (Seymour Hersh)
- October 4: The first American stricken with anthrax is a Florida man named Bob Stevens (see above); his case is reported in the media today.
Domestic terrorism
Health and Human Services head Tommy Thompson dismisses the case as an isolated incident with no connection to terrorist attacks. Letters containing anthrax continue to be received until October 19. After many false alarms, it turns out that only four letters contain real anthrax. They are sent to NBC, the New York Post, Democratic Senator Tom Daschle and Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy. There are a number of hoax letters however, that are possibly sent by the same person to all the recipients of the real anthrax letters, plus to CBS, Fox News, the New York Times, and the St. Petersberg Times. Eleven people are infected and five people eventually die, including Stevens. (CCR) - October 5:
War in Afghanistan
1,000 American troops are sent into Uzbekistan, which borders Afghanistan. (CCR) - October 5: Air Force General Richard Myers assumes the position of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, replacing the retiring General Hugh Shelton.
US military
He had served as vice chair under Shelton. Myers was chosen over Chief of Naval Operations Vern Clark for a number of reasons. Clark was widely seen as more likely to stand up to pressure from Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who is already winning a reputation as a bully and a martinet. Shelton personally recommended Clark as his successor, telling Rumsfeld that while Myers, the other serious candidate, would do little more than acquiesce to Rumsfeld, Clark would push back against Rumsfeld if need be, a quality that would serve both Rumsfeld and the US military far better than a yes-man. Rumsfeld's own chief civilian advisor, Steve Herbits, tells Rumsfeld, "If you want transformation to happen in this building, then Vern Clark's your man. He is brilliant analytically, he is a leader of change, he knows how to get people moving." Clark had been quite successful in streamlining and improving efficiency in the Navy, that most hidebound of military cultures. "He knows how to pick change agents. He changed the Navy. He's done an unbelievable job." However, Myers has combat experience, having logged over 600 hours in Vietnam. Clark has none. Herbits says that Myers's combat experience might give him "symbolic importantance. And the military will trust him more in a military situation than they will Vern, who has got all the credentials but he doesn't have the war-fighting experience." - Clark's interview with Rumsfeld is fractious and unproductive, with Clark insisting that if he is chair, he must have, as the law requires, access to the National Security Council and the president's ear. He, not Rumsfeld, will be the senior military advisor to Bush. Rumsfeld bristles at the suggestion. Rumsfeld later recalls to reporter Bob Woodward that Clark "didn't seem to want the job," a blatant misrepresentation. Clark didn't want to be Rumsfeld's echo chamber. Asked if he remembered any clash with Clark in the interview, Rumsfeld says, "Oh, not at all."
- But Bush went with Rumsfeld's choice of Myers, "who," Bush said on August 24 when announcing Myers as the new JCS chair, "will make sure that the military's point of view is always heard in the White House." Clark is told that Bush and Rumsfeld want him to remain as the chief of naval operations. Shelton believes that Rumsfeld wants a chairman in name only, and that Myers's selection will ensure that only Rumsfeld's voice will be heard as speaking for the military. No one from the military will be able to express an alternative point of view to contradict Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld's priorities are building the lavish new missile defense system -- Star Wars -- and implementing his personal vision of transforming the US military. But Shelton knows that when and if the time comes to deploy US military forces in a war zone, the armed forces will not be able to count on Myers to speak for them to the president and the NSC. Myers is replaced by General John Jumper as the Air Force chief of staff; Marine General James Jones, his counterpart, tells him, "Welcome to the mist disappointing group you'll ever be associated with. Military advice is compromised by the political leadership. It doesn't emerge." In many senior officers' views, Myers becomes little more than Rumsfeld's senior military assistant. White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card later recalls that he never heard Myers contradict Rumsfeld in any meetings. Myers might disagree with Rumsfeld, but the only way to tell was by observing Myers's silences. As Woodward writes, "The silence might mean the chairman disagreed but they would never know. ...Strong, forceful military advice was bleached out of the system. The uniformed military was now just staff, its voice a polite whisper. Rumsfeld thought he had won. He was in control." (Wikipedia, Bob Woodward
- October 5: Contrary to popular belief,
War in Afghanistan
Afghanistan "has significant oil and gas deposits. During the Soviets' decade-long occupation of Afghanistan, Moscow estimated Afghanistan's proven and probable natural gas reserves at around five trillion cubic feet and production reached 275 million cubic feet per day in the mid-1970s." Nonstop war since has prevent further exploitation, but that soon changes. A later article suggests the country may also have as much copper as Chile, the world's largest producer, and significant deposits of coal, emeralds, tungsten, lead, zinc, uranium ore and more. (CCR)
US launches long-planned offensive against Afghanistan
- October 7: The US and Britain, with the support of NATO, launch a series of air strikes and missile barrages at Afghani targets.
War in Afghanistan
Over the following weeks, American and British forces will launch dozens of air strikes at Taliban targets and suspected terrorist camps inside Afghanistan. (The US originally calls the Afghan invasion "Operation Infinite Justice," a phrase which offends Muslims; it is quickly renamed "Operation Enduring Freedom.") While the Pentagon, in the person of Donald Rumsfeld and new JCS chief Richard Myers, play up the intensity of the opening strike, they do not reveal that they have only 31 targets on their "hit list." The ensuing ground offensive will be largely carried out by Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, a largely lawless group of anti-Taliban warlords whose alliances are swift to shift with the tides of fortune; though this decision to "outsource" much of the ground fighting will limit American casualties, it will work to the detriment of effectively stamping out the Taliban from much of Afghanistan. - The Afghanistan offensive gives Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld the room and funds he needs to transform the US military into what he considers a leaner, faster, more flexible body. He drastically increases reliance on Special Forces, and uses his charm and aggressive personality to mesmerize the press with daily briefings on the progress of the offensive. The briefings also make clear that Rumsfeld, not the uniformed military, is in charge. "You see the contrast to the first Gulf War," says James Mann. "This time the secretary of defense is the guy at the podium and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is the guy who is kind of in uniform, sort of standing behind nodding. But Rumsfeld is the driving force." Off-camera, Rumsfeld has already begun personally redrafting the Pentagon's various plans for attacking different countries, particularly Iraq and other Middle Eastern nations. Many veteran Pentagon leaders, particularly Major General Eric Shinseki, disagree with Rumsfeld's "lean and mean" approach, worrying that Rumsfeld believes wars can be won on the cheap with limited personnel and an overwhelming reliance on air power. Shinseki and other Pentagon officials also believe Rumsfeld is far too interested in going to war with far too many Middle Eastern nations. Rumsfeld, with his colleague Paul Wolfowitz, who has been busily undermining Secretary of State Colin Powell from his position as undersecretary of state and darling of the Cheney/Rumsfeld axis of administration neocons, steadily wins out against Shinseki and other military leaders, eventually forcing the discredited Shinseki to resign in (temporary) disgrace. In a critical blunder, Rumsfeld persuades Bush to let Defense, not State, handle the occupation of Iraq after active military operations cease in May 2003. As Andrew Krepinevich explains, "Rumsfeld, in terms of his temperament and his personality, seems to be much better suited to be a secretary of war than a secretary of defense."
- Initially, Rumsfeld is left feeling enraged and impotent over the Afghanistan strikes. The CIA, using a plan put together by CIA director George Tenet and his counterterrorism chief Cofer Black, performs what is widely viewed as a magnificent, quickly orchestrated offensive, leaving Rumsfeld standing impotently on the sidelines. The commander of CENTCOM, General Tommy Franks, as noted above, has only identified 31 Taliban and al-Qaeda targets; Rumsfeld is all over the target selections, and insists that the strikes also target four dozen Taliban airplanes. Rumsfeld doesn't want to hear about the destruction of the runways that leave the airplanes stranded, and demands their immediate destruction. "I'm going to get fired!" Franks tells his CENTCOM air component commander, Air Force Lieutenant General Charles Wald. On a secure communication channel from the CENTCOM command center in Tampa, Franks lets loose with a torrent of profanity directed at Wald, insisting that the "f*cking airplanes be hit. Wald orders the strikes, but is unable to verify that the aircraft have been destroyed until he receives satellite pictures of the targets. Rumsfeld loses his composure entirely, and rants and screams until Wald finally delivers verification from the DIA.
- As the CIA-led strike teams, made up of US Special Forces and native Afghan teams, score success after success, Rumsfeld fumes, feeling left out. "This is the CIA's strategy," he complains on October 16. "They developed the strategy. We're just executing the strategy." Rumsfeld's whining and complaining has its effect; Rumsfeld is told by several senior officials, including Condoleezza Rice, Stephen Hadley, Richard Armitage, and CIA deputy John McLaughlin that he is either in charge, or needs to get himself in charge. Rumsfeld is humiliated. When, in October, Bush tells Rumsfeld to begin putting together a plan of attack for Iraq, Rumsfeld makes it his personal project. If Afghanistan was the CIA's triumph, Iraq would be his. (Wikipedia/Killtown, Rampton & Stauber/AlterNet, Wikipedia, PBS, David Corn, Bob Woodward)
- October 7 - on: The US orders pilots to "abide by the rule of low collateral,"
War in Afghanistan
meaning that they had discretion to hit targets "as long as they expected it would only cause minimal damage to civilians," according to Bob Woodward's account of Bush's leadership during the Afghanistan offensive, Bush at War. Even so, civilian casualties in Afghanistan are high from the outset, leading to Afghani outrage over the casualties and unconvincing denials by Bush that civilian targets are being hit. Woodward's accounts of Bush's meetings about, and discussions of, the progress made in the Afghani offensive contain no mention at all of any concern over civilian casualties; virtually the only mentions of "noncombatants" comes over discussion of two air strikes on Red Cross warehouses, which result in no civilian deaths but the destruction of critically needed humanitarian aid supplies such as food and medicine. Even Pakistani president Musharraf calls for an early end to the bombing raids due to civilian casualties. If Woodward's reporting is accurate, and he will be given unprecedented access to Bush, Powell, and other key figures in compiling his data, then Bush never troubles to ask anyone for accurate information about how many civilians are being killed and wounded by the strikes. The single instance of a discussion about "collateral damage" shows Bush worried about the public relations aspect of so many civilian deaths, but unworried about the deaths themselves. "Well, we also need to highlight the fact that the Taliban are killing people and conducting their own terror operations, so get a little bit of balance here about what the situation is." [Editor's note: this is a perfect illustration of the Rovian method of managing public opinion: if the issue can be turned into a back-and-forth, he-said she-said discussion, then the issue of civilian casualties itself becomes secondary, and the PR damage is negligible.] Interestingly enough, Bush later speaks with NBC's Tom Brokaw about the PR effects of civilian casualties in targeting Saddam Hussein's family at the onset of the Iraq invasion, and tells Brokaw, "...I was worried that the first pictures coming out of Iraq would be a wounded grandchild of Saddam Hussein...that the first images of the American attack would be death to young children." Peter Singer writes, "The concern Bush expresses here is not about the risk that American bombs might kill or wound children -- who would, even if they were Saddam's grandchildren, be innocent of his crimes. It is that images of the dead or wounded children would be 'the first pictures coming out of Iraq.' Taken in isolation, one might think that Bush was simply speaking carelessly, but the similarity between Woodward's account of his thoughts about the public relations aspects of civilian casualties in Afghanistan, and this remark about children being killed in Iraq, suggests that this focus on the images rather than the actual deaths is an accurate reflection of Bush's thinking." (Bob Woodward/Peter Singer) - Shortly after the Afghanistan bombings begin,
Iraq war and occupation
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz contacts his old friend and fellow military intellectual Christopher DeMuth, the longtime head of the extremist conservative think tank AEI (American Enterprise Institute). Wolfowitz tells DeMuth that the Defense Department is incapable of producing the kinds of ideas and strategies needed to handle a crisis of the magnitude required to respond to the 9/11 attacks. He wants DeMuth and the AEI to determine exactly who the terrorists are, where they come from, how they relate to Islamic history and the history of the Middle East, and how they impact current Middle East tensions. Wolfowitz says he is thinking along the lines of the famous "Bletchley Park" team of mathematicians and cryptologists set up by the British during World War II to break the ULTRA German codes. He asks DeMuth to put together a team to produce a report for himself, Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and George Tenet. DeMuth leaps at the chance. As reporter Bob Woodward writes, "AEI was practically the intellectual farm team and retirement home for Washington conservatives. Among its scholars and fellows were former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and Lynne Cheney, the wife of the vice president. Cheney himself had been an AEI fellow between his stints as secretary of defense and president and CEO of the giant defense contractor Halliburton." DeMuth recruits a team of a dozen AEI stalwarts, including Islamic scholar Bernard Lewis (a Cheney favorite), former US ambassador to Hungary Mark Palmer, Newsweek editor Fareed Zakaria, SAIS Middle East Studies director Fouad Ajami, human studies professor James Wilson, and former CIA middle east expert Reuel Marc Gerecht. Many of the team members became well-known to TV news audiences as "experts" on the Iraq situation in years to come. Rumsfeld's chief civilian aide, Steve Herbits, is assigned to the group; Herbits nicknames the group "Bletchley II." - By late November 2001, DeMuth has distilled his team's contributions into a seven-page memo, dramatically titled "Delta of Terrorism." DeMuth later says that his memo identifies Egypt and Saudi Arabia as the key to dealing with the 9/11 terrorists, but their problems are intractable and unsoluable by the US. Iran is similarly crucial, but just as difficult to deal with. DeMuth says the group identified a conflict with Iraq as inevitable -- "a gathering threat[,] the most menacing, active, and unavoidable threat. We agreed that Saddam would have to leave the scene before the problem would be addressed." Reporter Bob Woodward describes the memo as "straight out of the neoconservative playbook." It is distributed to all of Bush's war-cabinet members. Cheney took the memo to heart, and its contents and thrust heavily influence Bush's own thinking. Rice finds it "very, very persuasive." Herbits summarizes the recommendations of the memo thusly: "We're facing a two-generation war. And start with Iraq." (Bob Woodward)
- October 7:
Islamist terrorism
Pakistani intelligence (ISI) chief General Mahmud Ahmed, considered by many to be a Taliban supporter, is replaced after the FBI finds evidence linking him to Umar Sheikh, one of the terrorists involved in the 1993 WTC bombings. (Dawn, CCR) - October 7: Roger Ailes, chairman of Fox News, sends a secret memo to President Bush offering political advice.
Conservative media slant
(Ailes was the chief media consultant to the first Bush administration, and also worked for the Nixon and Reagan administrations.) According to Bob Woodward, who first reported the story in his book Bush at War, "[The memo] had to be confidential because Ailes, a flamboyant and irreverent media executive, was currently the head of Fox News, the conservative-leaning television cable network that was enjoying high ratings. In that position, Ailes was not supposed to be giving political advice. His back-channel message: The American public would tolerate waiting and would be patient, but only as long as they were convinced that Bush was using the harshest measures possible. Support would dissipate if the public did not see Bush acting harshly." Former Fox news producer Charlie Reina says, "Everyone [at Fox] understands that FNC [Fox News] is, to a large extent, 'Roger's Revenge' -- against what he considers a liberal, pro-Democrat media establishment that has shunned him for decades." (WSWS/Rense, Amy Goodman and David Goodman)
Anthrax mailings kill several; anthrax letters are sent to two leading Democrats
- October 8: Anthrax is detected in the American Media building in Boca Raton, Florida, where Bob Stevens worked.
Domestic terrorism
Other American Media employees will test positive for anthrax over the coming days. Later in the month, NBC news anchor Tom Brokaw is sent an envelope stuffed with anthrax; a NBC News employee tests positive. Democratic Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy receive similar letters at their offices in Washington. New York Governor George Pataki says that anthrax is detected in the New York Capital building. Anthrax is also detected in the Ford building in Washington. Postal workers in Washington test positive for anthrax; postal facilities in Washington and New Jersey are closed for testing. (CCR) - October 8: Television reporter Cokie Roberts is asked on NPR's Morning Edition if there are any antiwar dissenters in Congress.
Conservative media slant
Her reply? "None that matter." "It's a jaw-dropping statement when you think about it," writes David Potorti, who lost his brother in the World Trade Center attacks. Potorti will write a book, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, in part inspired by Roberts' flippant dismissal. "In a larger sense, of course, Roberts is right," Potorti observes. "In a media universe where you're likely to find right-wing conservatives on ABC, Fox, or NPR, the facts don't matter; only the framing. And in the hands of biased pundits posing as objective journalists, the framing is always going to be the same: pro-military, pro-government, and pro-war. ...Will network news divisions, owned by defense contractors, give us any useful insights into the workings of the US military? None that matter. Will you hear any coherent news reports from outside of a narrow, statist perspective? None that matter. And are there any mainstream media outlets willing to criticize US foreign policy? None that matter." (Amy Goodman and David Goodman) - October 9:
Attack on civil liberties
Democratic Senator Russ Feingold blocks an attempt to rush the secretly written USA Patriot Act to a vote with little debate and no opportunity for amendments, and criticizes the bill as a threat to liberty. (CCR) - October 9: Identical anthrax letters are postmarked in
Domestic terrorism
Trenton, New Jersey, with lethal doses to Democratic Senators Daschle and Leahy. Inside both letters are the words: "Death to America, Death to Israel, Allah is Great." (CCR) - October 9:
Oil profiteering and the "oiligarchy"
US Ambassador Wendy Chamberlain meets with the Pakistani oil minister. She is briefed on the gas pipeline project from Turkmenistan, across Afghanistan, to Pakistan, which appears to be revived "in view of recent geopolitical developments." (Frontier Post/From the Wilderness)
