Wolfie's Back?

by emptywheel

Bmaz sent me Isikoff's latest, which thankfully does more than report on events from his past as if they were news. It reports the frightening news that Condi's about to appoint Paul Wolfowitz to an advisory position at State.

Nearly three years after Paul Wolfowitz resigned as deputy Defense secretary and six months after his stormy departure as president of the World Bank—amid allegations that he improperly awarded a raise to his girlfriend—he's in line to return to public service. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel, according to two department sources who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters. "We think he is well suited and will do an excellent job," said one senior official.

They don't yet have Wolfie listed on the website, so maybe there's some time to embarrass Condi out of putting Wolfie in an advisory position again. I suggest we start an embarrassment campaign by focusing on two issues.

Condi, someone committed a security indiscretion to give Wolfie's girlfriend a job at State. Are you sure you should repeat the mistake by giving Wolfie more access to classified information?

Remember that when people started complaining that Wolfie was giving Shaha Reza preferential treatment at the World Bank, his "solution" was to set her up at State? Remember Sidney Blumenthal's description of how unusual Reza's security clearance process was?

Riza was unhappy about leaving the sinecure at the World Bank. But in 2006 Wolfowitz made a series of calls to his friends that landed her a job at a new think tank called Foundation for the Future that is funded by the State Department. She was the sole employee, at least in the beginning. The World Bank continued to pay her salary, which was raised by $60,000 to $193,590 annually, more than the $183,500 paid to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and all of it tax-free. Moreover, Wolfowitz got the State Department to agree that the ratings of her performance would automatically be "outstanding." Wolfowitz insisted on these terms himself and then misled the World Bank board about what he had done.

[snip]

Riza, who is not a U.S. citizen, had to receive a security clearance in order to work at the State Department. Who intervened? It is not unusual to have British or French midlevel officers at the department on exchange programs, but they receive security clearances based on the clearances they already have with their host governments. Granting a foreign national who is detailed from an international organization a security clearance, however, is extraordinary, even unprecedented. So how could this clearance have been granted?

State Department officials familiar with the details of this matter confirmed to me that Shaha Ali Riza was detailed to the State Department and had unescorted access while working for Elizabeth Cheney. Access to the building requires a national security clearance or permanent escort by a person with such a clearance. But the State Department has no record of having issued a national security clearance to Riza.

So, after turning State Department into a scam to allow Wolfowitz to break ethical rules and expose US secrets to a foreign national with no apparent clearance, Condi now wants to use a State advisory board to give Wolfie clearance himself.

Condi, aren't you a little ashamed at the way Wolfie used your agency the last time?

Condi, is it a coincidence that so many people responsible for gaming the intelligence to get us into Iraq are on your advisory board?

Isikoff helpfully points out that Wolfie's not the only embarrassing name on the board.

other panel members include Robert Joseph, the former National Security Council official in charge of Iraq WMD intelligence, and ex-CIA director James Woolsey, both strong allies during the Iraq debate.

But Isikoff lets both these men off easy--way too easy. Bob Joseph is the guy who put the Niger claim into the SOTU, apparently pressuring Alan Foley to keep it in there after Foley objected. Condi is protecting Joseph (and he's protecting Condi) by refusing to show up at Waxman's committee to admit she knew the Niger claim was bunk before it went into the SOTU.

And Woolsey was personally responsible for introducing at least three of Chalabi's INC exiles to DIA--and these just happened to be three of the ones who told the biggest lies to get us into war. Without Woolsey providing a way for the INC's liars to bypass Valerie Wilson's group, which vetted such exiles much more carefully, we might not have had the war.

As for Wolfowitz himself, he was responsible for lying us into war in several different ways. He famously promised that American soldiers would be greeted with flowers. He scoffed at those who suggested we'd need hundreds of thousands of troops for the invasion. And he set up Dougie Feith's propaganda shop, the Office of Special Plans. And this is the guy she wants to advise her on WMDs?

Furthermore, it's not like Wolfie's actually a good risk to give a security clearance. We know Wolfowitz, believing the NIE and the January 24 excerpt of the NIE to be classified, leaked it to the WSJ on Scooter Libby's orders. Is Wolfie going to leak this information to any neocon who instructs him to leak it?

In any case, I think Condi should be shamed into getting rid not just of Wolfowitz, but also the other two thugs who helped lie us into war.

Comments

[readerOfTeaLeaves]

So presumably, Cheney wins another one? Bush41 got Gates into DoD to clean out the Pentagon, including Wolfie.
Enough reports from foreign sources suggest that Condi's a standing joke. This nails it.

[FHY]

Wolfie might be there to fire those FSOs who refused to work in Iraq or change the contract and pay. The WMD issue(trucks) at CIA was confirmed by Plame a month ago. Woolsey would have known Plame was a 'bad' agent after she violated IIPA over Ames. This would have been used to bypass her. She was probably watched since his arrest in 95.

Shays on the Intelligence Committee got his wife a job at a new department at Peace Corps that does some type of research. Of course it's not intelligence related.

[phred]

I think I read during the Mukasey confirmation that Feingold thinks the President deserves to choose his own advisors (that business about advice and consent from the Senate is the part of the Constitution Russ never read). How it is possible to treat any appointment by any member of this corrupt, incompetent, and criminal administration as anything other than another act of obstruction of justice (or worse) is entirely beyond me. I'm all in favor of shaming Condi, but what will it take to impeach Bush and Cheney and put a stop to this endless corruption? They have more than a year to wreak havoc and given what they have thus far accomplished in under 7 years, I hate to see how much more damage they can inflict.

[William Ockham]

Maybe my tinfoil hat is on too tight, but did you notice that the charter for that board was revised on 11/13/2007? What's up with that? Time for a visit to the wayback machine...

[bmaz]

WO - That is interesting. Please report back with any further info. Wasn't Wolfie the one who also famously said that the Iraq war was going to pay for itself from all of the Iraqi oil royalties?

[let me suck on my comb]

shouldn't this treasonous hook nosed piece of shit be in prison, if not in front of a firing squad, by now ???

wtf !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[sojourner]

Marcy, I think we are missing something real important here...

Could it be that Condi and Wolfie are an item now and she is setting HIM up? ;-)

[bmaz]

Yes, Condi and Wolfie are an item! In fact, they have received an invite (subpoena) to appear together at the social event of the season. Was reminded of this bit by Siun's post at FDL. I wonder if getting Woldowitz back in the Administration is, at least partially, about creating a better privilege umbrella in order to keep him (Condiliar too, of course) off the stand in this case.

[emptywheel]

sojourner

Aside from her husband, Condi is rumored to like other women, not aging men with grooming problems. But who knows? Condi's pretty cosmopolitan, compared to the rest of this crowd.

[...]

i thought it was standard security procedure to give top secret info to people with close ties to israel? why would the usa want to go on a course different from its stated position of being a close friend of israel? surely you don't expect the usa to put in this type of position someone more nuetral?

[Mad Dogs]

Could the appointment of Wolfie be part of the Warplan for Iran?

It sure seems like Darth has been following a script to promote Iran War Fever, and he'd certainly like to have a proven successful promoter like Wolfie back in the saddle again.

"Wolfie, we need another scam to convince everyone that Iran has got WMD. You're the best one to conjure this up make this happen. Also, I need you to ride herd on Condi 'cause she's gonna have weak knees as we lock and load. Capisce?"

[MrX]

Aside from her husband, Condi is rumored to like other women, not aging men with grooming problems.

When did Condi get married?

[hauksdottir]

MrX,

Condi referred to Bush as her husband. Some of us feel that she administers punishment drills to him when he needs a spanking.

Since he wrote her a note asking if he could take a bathroom break during a UN session, I think she ought to have referred to him as her ward or son or other dependent. When the Commander Guy and Deciderer-in-Chief has to ask permission to go potty, you know the country is in trouble. Of course, he has his own porta-potty and special toilet paper so that nobody can collect evidence of drugs or medications.

[pdaly]

By giving them a State Department positions, does Condi prevent lawsuits from touching these characters?

James Woolsey has been pushing the Saddam thing for a while. I believe he wrote a glowing blurb for Laurie Mylroie's 2000 book in which she claims the 1993 NYC World Center Bombing was carried out for Saddam by Pakistani Yousef/Kuwaiti Basit. Something about the fingerprints of Basit's Kuwaiti intelligence files being tampered with presumably while Saddam was in Kuwait were Mylroie's proof that Saddam was behind the NYC bombing. I am reminded of Judy Miller and her floating Knesset models.

Good point hauksodottir re: "he has his own porta-potty."
I assume heads of state from other countries do the same thing to prevent foreign intelligence agencies (i.e., our CIA) from discovering their state of health and the identities of any prescriptions from their human waste.

Wonder how the bathroom situation works logistically at international conferences:
Do you think there is designated conference room where rows of exclusive port-a-potties are guarded by each country's military and secret services? Or separate conference rooms with one port-a-potty each?

[emptywheel]

MrX

Yes, the husband thing is only metaphorical.

pdaly

Now that's a very good question. Maybe one of the perks of being a permanent member of the UNSC is a secure toilet.

[phred]

bmaz, so if I understand you correctly getting Wolfie back in State makes it easier to claim what... state secrets or executive privilege? So now I'm wondering how executive privilege works... does it only apply to people currently in government service? Does that mean it cannot be extended to those formerly in government regarding their actions while there? Or is it just not usually applied to cover former officials. I'm a bit puzzled on this one. As for state secrets, I would assume that applies to specific actions such that being in or out of government would not make any difference in asserting the claim. Is that right?

[bmaz]

Phred - That was a comment I vacillated about making. I personally have never thought that assertion of executive privilege depends on whether or not the person was still in the government. The privilege rests with the executive not the person. I remember back at the height of the Monica Goodling testimony deal that there were many convinced (including several in government) that disagreed and felt there was an effect. I will say this, having him in the government makes it a hell of a lot easier to ride herd on him from the Administration's standpoint and a lot less likely that Wolfie wants to freelance and help out certain parties and interests in the case. So, I don't know, I kind of just put it out for discussion to see if it triggered anything....

[radiofreewill]

I think Wolfie is being brought into State to 'immunize' him (or as EW says, to ride herd over their exposure from him) from possible investigation and/or indictment.

By protecting Wolfie, Bush is protecting himself.

[radiofreewill]

Oops! That was bmaz who suggested the 'riding herd' notion.

[phred]

Thanks for the clarification bmaz and rfw... Appreciated, as always :)

[earlofhuntingdon]

This is Cheney demonstrating that he takes care of his own and extending his familiar greeting, "Go Have Intercourse with Yourself," to his would be critics. Policy isn't made at State, anyway, it's made in Cheney's corner of the White House and it involves the same players, in or out of office.

This move does attempt to get Wolfie back on the public dime, with a high-level security clearance. It also puts another mole in Condi's shop, a never ending past time for Cheney. Since this is a part-time job, it also sets Wolfie up even better for the WingNut welfare system and its chief employer, the AEI.

[Kathleen]

Why in the hell would Condi Rice choose to pick someone so controversial? Come one this is one of the main architects of the war in Iraq, this is the radical that said it would cost $200 million, that we did not need to send in more troops?

This is hopefully a rumor. Why would Rice want to stir up so much trouble?

This is one of the guys we need to Impeach so that we can never serve in another administration. Wolfowitz is drowning in the Iraqi peoples blood and has not even noticed. No shame no conscience.