[THS] Chris Floyd: Gates Of Hell

[Peter Webster]

  http://www.rense.com/general74/gates.htm

Gates Of Hell -
Another Constitution-Betraying
Bushist In The Pentagon
By Chris Floyd
11-9-6


Could anyone be worse than Donald Rumsfeld as 
Defense Secretary? Well, how about an old Bush 
Family factotum who was hip-deep in the 
Iran-Contra arms-drugs-terror scam, who doctored, 
spun and manipulated intelligence for partisan 
purposes and also steered secret U.S. military 
intelligence to help Saddam Hussein launch WMD 
attacks? Oh, plus someone who has no experience 
whatsoever of the military? Sounds like a dream 
candidate; and of course our Dear Leader -- 
manfully shaking off the great slap he took from 
the ungrateful American people who clearly don't 
deserve such sterling leadership -- has found 
him. (Plus an update below on Gates' involvement with high treason as well.)

Jason Leopold has the skinny on Def Sec nominee 
Robert M. Gates, a man whose murky past has 
already deep-sixed one attempt to get him through 
the Senate confirmation process. Of course, with 
good old holy Joe the Schmo Lieberman now holding 
the balance of power in the Senate, Gates will 
probably squeeze into the Pentagon, where he can 
preside over whatever butt-covering bug-out plan 
that other old Bush Family factotum, Jim Baker, 
comes up with. (One question arises from all 
this, and somebody in the White House press corps 
should ask it: Which George Bush is president of the country now?)

Gates Has History of Manipulating Intelligence (Truthout.org)

Excerpts: Robert Gates, the former director of 
the CIA during the presidency of George H.W. Bush 
who was tapped Tuesday by the president to 
replace Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, 
is part of Texas's good ol' boy network. He may 
be best known for playing a role in arming Iraq's 
former dictator Saddam Hussein with American-made 
weapons in the country's war against Iran in the 1980s...

During contentious Senate confirmation hearings 
in October 1991 - which are bound to come up 
again - Gates's role in cooking intelligence 
information during the Iran-Contra scandal was 
revealed. It was during those hearings that 
senators found out about a December 2, 1986, 
10-page classified memo written by Thomas 
Barksdale, the CIA analyst for Iran. That memo 
claimed that covert arms sales to the country 
demonstrated "a perversion of the intelligence 
process" that is staggering in its proportions.

The Barksdale memo was used by Gates's detractors 
to prove he played an active role in slanting 
intelligence information during his tenure at the 
agency under Reagan. Eerily reminiscent of the 
way CIA analysts were treated by Vice President 
Dick Cheney during the run-up to the Iraq war 
three years ago, when agents were forced to 
provide the Bush administration with intelligence 
showing Iraq was a nuclear threat, Barksdale said 
he and other Iran analysts "were never consulted 
or asked to provide an intelligence input to the 
covert actions and secret contacts that have occurred."

Barksdale added that Gates was the pipeline for 
providing "exclusive reports to the White House," 
intelligence that was "at odds with the 
overwhelming bulk of intelligence reporting, both 
from U.S. sources and foreign intelligence services"....

At the hearing, other CIA analysts said Gates 
forced them to twist intelligence to exaggerate 
the threat posed by the former Soviet Union. 
Analysts alleged a report approved by Gates 
overstated Soviet influence in Iran that 
specifically led the late President Ronald Reagan 
into making policy decisions that turned into the 
Iran-Contra scandal. Jennifer Glaudemans, a 
former CIA analyst, said at the 1991 Gates 
confirmation hearings that she and her colleagues 
at the CIA believed "Mr Gates and his influence 
have led to a prostitution of [Soviet] analysis....."

If confirmed, Gates would arguably be overseeing 
a war that removed a dictator he personally 
helped to prop up. Tom Harkin, a senator from 
Iowa, described Gates's role in intelligence 
sharing operations with Iraq during a time when 
the United States helped arm Saddam Hussein in Iraq's war against Iran.

I also have doubts and questions about Mr. 
Gates's role in the secret intelligence sharing 
operation with Iraq," Harkin said during Gates's 
confirmation hearings on November 7, 1991. 
"Robert Gates served as assistant to the director 
of the CIA in 1981 and as deputy director for 
intelligence from 1982 to 1986. In that capacity, 
he helped develop options in dealing with the 
Iran-Iraq war, which eventually evolved into a 
secret intelligence liaison relationship with 
Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Gates was in charge of the 
directorate that prepared the intelligence 
information that was passed on to Iraq. He 
testified that he was also an active participant 
in the operation during 1986. The secret 
intelligence sharing operation with Iraq was not 
only a highly questionable and possibly illegal 
operation, but also may have jeopardized American 
lives and our national interests. The photo 
reconnaissance, highly sensitive electronic 
eavesdropping, and narrative texts provided to 
Saddam may not only have helped him in Iraq's war 
against Iran, but also in the recent gulf 
war.Great! Yet another Saddam-loving Pentagon 
goober whose blind obedience to nutball White 
House policies helped kill American soldiers! It 
will be as if Rummy never left.

UPDATE

Meanwhile, as Robert Parry reported ­ long ago ­ 
Gates was also hip-deep in what was probably the 
greatest act of treason in American history since 
Benedict Arnold: the "October Surprise" of 1980, 
when VP candidate (and former CIA chief) George 
H.W. Bush and his CIA moles cut a secret deal 
with Iran to keep the American hostages held 
captive until after the election and Reagan's 
inauguration. In return, Bush and his boss Reagan 
agreed to unfreeze Iranian assets in the U.S., 
release $150 million in pre-revolution military 
equipment for Iran that Jimmy Carter hand 
impounded after the Shah was overthrown, and 
promises of future secret military aid (which was funneled through Israel).

These secret negotiations with an avowed enemy of 
America, behind the back of the elected 
government, all for partisan political benefit, 
were, of course, an act of high treason. Gates 
was there, undermining the very government he was 
sworn to serve. With this rank transgression he 
made his bones with the Bush Family, and has 
since reaped copious rewards. Now he's back to 
rescue the traitor's son from the consequences of his murderous stupidity.

Yes, the Pentagon ­ our nation's military ­ and 
the people of Iraq ­ are certainly in good hands now.

Read the whole sordid history here: The Original 
October Surprise (Truthout.org, via Consortiumnews.org, via Kurt Nimmo).

Chris Floyd is an American journalist. His work 
has appeared in print and online in venues all 
over the world, including the Nation, 
CounterPunch, Columbia Journalism Review, the 
Christian Science Monitor, Il Manifesto, the 
Moscow Times and many others. He is the author of 
Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in 
the Bush Imperium, and is co-founder and editor 
of the "Empire Burlesque" political blog. He can 
be reached at cfloyd72 at gmail.com.