White House Report

The Bush administration's use of false claims that "weapons of mass destruction" posed an imminent threat to the U.S. and its allies as a pretext for a preemptive and unilateral invasion of Iraq was based on "bogus use of intelligence" by Bush, and was not a failure of the intelligence community.

So asserted the former Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Merrill "Tony" McPeak in an extraordinary briefing yesterday at the Virginia state headquarters of the Dean for President campaign in the City of Falls Church.

"The allegation that the blame lies with the CIA is bogus, as well," he said. "I expect the White House to slow-roll the investigation until the final results are not in until after the election."

Gen. McPeak's sharp criticisms of the Bush administration's handling of the Iraq operation and the intelligence claims associated with it were a marked departure from his earlier support for Bush during his 2000 presidential campaign.

McPeak was joined by four other leading U.S. military officials who tore apart Bush's Iraq policy. Combined, all five stressed their support for the presidential candidacy of Howard Dean.

A sixth person present, Greg Thielmann, formerly head of the Iraq desk at the State Department, was also present, but neutral on the presidential campaign. He did not speak at the briefing, but only with reporters afterward.

Thielmann's explosive interview on CBS's 60 Minutes 2 was aired last night, a timely replay of what he said when he resigned his State Department post last year in protest of Secretary of State Colin Powell's allegations about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

"Our conclusion in the Iraq sector at the State Department was that such weapons did not exist," he said. Obviously, we now know he was right, which begs the question of how Gen. Powell would countervene the findings of his own department.

Col. Richard L. Klass, USAF (ret.) noted during yesterday's briefing that that the White House was getting its so-called intelligence from the Office of Special Plans in the Pentagon, which was tasked with cooking and funneling intelligence aimed at helping to make the case for the invasion, and that it by-passed all the usual intelligence and evaluations mechanisms in the government.

Briefings from Rumsfeld's and Paul Wolfowitz' Office of Special Plans went directly to Cheney in the White House.

Chief Warrant Officer Todd Weiler, U.S. Army (ret.), said the Bush administration was "stovepiping intelligence" to make the case for invading Iraq.

Col. Dave McGinnis, U.S. Army (ret.) said that Iraq has been "distracting." "It is not the proper center of our focus," he said. "Iraq was not a strategic center of gravity for the U.S., but just something to deal with. Our center of focus needs to be al Qaeda and its sponsors."

Gen. McPeak, who helped the Sen. Dole's GOP presidential campaign in 1996 in addition to the G. W. Bush campaign in 2000, said he strongly opposed "the way we got in to Iraq and the way we're handling it now." "It should have been played out in the United Nations first. We needed a U.N. mandate," he said.

"The administration ramroded the war with Iraq through the American people," asserted Weiler, noting that when U.S. involvement in Bosnia was being planned, his group had to go to constantly to the Hill to ensure lawmakers that an exit strategy existed before any thought could be given to going in. "This administration went into Iraq without any such plans. The way it went about this was wrong."

Col. Klass said that the Bush administration "failed its own test" for precipitation preemptive action, which had three components: 1. adequate intelligence of a threat, 2. world support for the operation and, 3. adequate forces to complete the job. In this context, he noted the inability of U.S. troops in Iraq now to handle the on-going insurgency. The post-invasion component of the operation "has been a disaster, based on miserable planning," he said.

Weiler stressed that the greatest problem with the Bush Iraq policy was its unilateralism. "This is going to have a massive effect on our relations with the rest of the world. It will profoundly impact how this country can function around the world for the next four to eight years," he said.

The military leaders also spoke extensively on why they support Dean for president. "We are really behind this guy," said Cpl. John Creasy, U.S. Marines.