George R. Packard
President, International University of Japan;
Director of the Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, President, U.S.-Japan Foundation
George R. Packard was dean of SAIS from 1979 to 1993 and is now director of the Edwin O. Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies as well as professor of East Asian studies at the school. He is also president of the International University of Japan. From 1965 to 1967, he was chief diplomatic correspondent for Newsweek. Prior to that, he served as special assistant to U.S. Ambassador to Japan Edwin O. Reischauer. In March of 1998, he was appointed president of the U.S.-Japan Foundation.
Packard Report - April. 2005
The "whitewash" continues. The American people, and of course the mainstream media, now know that the Bush Administration lied to them before it went to war against Iraq: lied about the danger of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and lied about the connection of Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein's Government.
The 601-page report issued at the end of March by a presidentially appointed nine-member Commission blasted the 15 U.S. intelligence agencies for harming American credibility. In effect, the Commission placed all the blame for the disastrous war on the intelligence community and none on the officials who distorted and misused the intelligence.
No one was held accountable, no policy-maker was to blame. And yet we know from reporting at the time that Vice President Dick Cheney personally visited the CIA a half a dozen times to let the analysts know that Iraq was the main target of the White House.
We know that Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and Douglas Feith, Under Secretary, both worked to form a separate intelligence unit in the Pentagon that tried to incriminate Iraq and to dismiss contrary evidence.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell declared last week to a German publication that he was "angry" over having been given false intelligence just before he testified before the United Nations Security Council to the effect that Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction.
There is some speculation that Powell may be angry enough to come forward with all that he knows - an event that would be devastating to Bush. At this time, however, he is still playing the role of "good soldier."
Instead of admitting that mistakes were made - (in which case individuals would have to be named and fired) - the Bush Administration has tried to brazen out the failure by promoting the very people who got it wrong. Wolfowitz has been sent off to the cushy job as President of the World Bank. Feith was allowed to retire quietly. George Tenet, Director of CIA at the time, was given the Medal of Freedom. Cheney and Rumsfeld remain untouchable.
And yet a new time bomb is ticking under the surface. In February of this year, National Security Council official Michael Green was sent to pay a personal call on Prime Minister Koizumi in Tokyo, as well as to Seoul and Beijing to brief President Roh and President Hu Jintao on the North Korean nuclear program. Green's message: the U.S. has proof that the nuclear material that showed up in Libya was of North Korean origin.
This initiative would, if credible, have the effect of undermining the Six-Party talks involving North Korea and its nuclear program, a move that Cheney and other hard-liners are pushing. Condoleeza Rice, as Secretary of State, however, seems committed to resuming the talks.
The Washington Post has reported authoritatively that Green's information was false and/or misleading. The newspaper quoted two unnamed intelligence sources as saying that the nuclear material did indeed originate in North Korea but that it was sold to Pakistan, which in turn sold it to Libya.
If this is true, if Green was sent to Asia to lie, the consequences could be devastating. But so far the media has not been able to push the story any further. In fact the New York Times on March 31, in a long analysis, could not say who was right and who was wrong.
Sooner or later, given the massive scale of lying in this administration, some government official will step forward to expose the deception and "spin" manipulation of the Bush team.
Until that happens, expect them to continue their triumphal ways and to consider themselves invulnerable.
George R. Packard
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