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05 Aug 2008 07:34 pm

The Suskind "Forgery"

A reader writes:

I harbor no ill will towards Suskind, but I'm calling bullshit.

A) The Bush administration is not a John Grisham novel. People do not order the CIA to break the law on creak colored White House stationary. If this sort of thing is done, it's not done with a paper trail

B) Reporting at the time on the Con Coughlin story, or rather a month later, pinned the intel on Atta in the camp on Iyad Allawi. That doesn't rule out the White House per se, but remember according to the Suskind narrative its the White House that backs Chalabi and the agency and MI6 that backs Allawi. See this entry from Juan Cole here.

C) Suskind apparently quotes lots of ex-CIA people for this stuff. But why didn't they say this to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence when they were under oath.

D) Suskind has gotten important details wrong before.

E) Tahir Jalil Habbush, the ex Iraqi intel chief is by almost every other account at large and on the military's list of people it can kill. See this piece for example from long war journal. Suskind's allegation that he is being paid off and living in Jordan is the first I've heard of it.   

I haven''t read the book myself - and neither has my informed reader - but these points are worth airing.

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