Response to 9/11 was 'huge overreaction' - ex-MI5 chief

Thanks! I live on the internet at work because it's the slow season and my job is kinda laid back.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Office_of_Special_Plans

Paul Dundes Wolfowitz, OSP architect
Douglas Jay Feith, Undersecretary of Defense (OSP reports to)
Steven A. Cambone, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence
Abram N. Shulsky, Director of Office of Special Plans
William Luti, Undersecretary of Defense who "oversees the OSP"

"As the momentum for war [in Iraq] began to build in early 2002, Paul D. Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith beefed up the intelligence unit and created an Iraq war-planning unit in the Pentagon's Near East and South Asia Affairs section, run by Deputy Undersecretary of Defense William Luti, under the rubric Office of Special Plans, or OSP; the new unit's director was Abram N. Shulsky. By then, David Wurmser had moved on to a post as senior adviser to Undersecretary of State John Bolton, yet another neocon, who was in charge of the State Department's disarmament, proliferation, and WMD office and was promoting the Iraq war strategy there. Shulsky's OSP, which incorporated the secret intelligence unit, took control, banishing veteran experts-including Joseph McMillan, James Russell, Larry Hanauer, and Marybeth McDevitt-who, despite years of service to NESA, either were shuffled off to other positions or retired. For the next year, Luti and Shulsky not only would oversee war plans but would act aggressively to shape the intelligence product received by the White House."

In July 2003, "due to ever increasing criticism about the role OSP has played in the gathering of intelligence and the conclusions made to justify the war with Iraq, the Pentagon changed the name of OSP back to its original name, Northern Gulf Affairs Office."
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http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_timeline_of_the_200...

2001-2003: US Intelligence Bases Assessements on Information Provided by INC The US intelligence community—most notably the intelligence gatherers working in the Pentagon offices under Douglas Feith (see September 2002) —bases several of its intelligence assessments concerning Iraq on information offered by the Iraqi National Congress (INC) and by Iraqi defectors provided by the INC, despite warnings from the State Department and some CIA analysts that the lobbying group cannot be trusted. [New Yorker, 5/12/2003; Salon, 7/16/2003; Guardian, 7/17/2003; Inter Press Service, 8/7/2003; Independent, 9/30/2003; Mother Jones, 1/2004 Sources: Greg Thielmann, Unnamed administration official] The INC’s primary intelligence organization is its Information Collection Program (ICP), which conducts about 20 percent of all US intelligence’s verbal debriefings of Iraqi prisoners, insurgents, and defectors. [Bamford, 2004, pp. 336-337] Some of the INC’s intelligence on Iraq is reportedly funneled directly to the office of Vice President Dick Cheney by Francis Brooke, the DC lobbyist for the group. [Newsweek, 12/15/2003 Sources: Memo, Francis Brooke] Brooke will later acknowedge that the information provided by the INC was driven by an agenda. “I told them [the INC], as their campaign manager, ‘Go get me a terrorist and some WMD, because that’s what the Bush administration is interested in.’” [Vanity Fair, 5/2004, pp. 230] Brooke had previously worked for the Rendon Group, “a shadowy CIA-connected public-relations firm.” [Mother Jones, 1/2004]
Entity Tags: Douglas Feith, Richard (“Dick”) Cheney, Francis Brooke, Frank Gaffney, Office of Special Plans
Category Tags: Alleged Al-Qaeda Ties, Politicization of Intelligence, Alleged WMDs, Office of Special Plans

At this point, all of her criticisms are just commentary.

If she was still in mi5, her accusations would've been more effective. She should have come out then, when it mattered most.

Did we make mistakes after 9-11...yes. However, the biggest mistake I have seen is the lack of thoughtful options on how to deal with the post 9-11 era. There is a lot of blaming going on. There are several groups at fault...and I am sorry, most likely, you are a part of it.

Trying to bring down a system only to build up a less effective system makes no sense. Please read the declaration of independence for more insight on that. I read the post on here and I am amazed at the brilliance of the posters. Instead of being drive-by bloggers...we should join and truly put forth measures that will change this country for the better.

When thoughtful people start to place events like 9/11 into perspective the healing has begun.

As bad as that day was it never warranted the reaction that it got. Clearly the terror effect was amplified by the Bushies for there own political ends and I don't think anyone other than the 25 percenters will deny this.

Whenever anyone trys to tell me that our reaction was appropriate I always bring up the Cold War. For almost 50 years the world stood on the brink of nuclear armeggedon. It would have taken no more than 30 minutes to end all life on earth. Still no president during that time felt the need to abbrogate our civil rights, limit habeus corpus, illegally spy on 300,000,000 Americans, legalize torture or start illegal wars to "protect us". In time more people will begin to acknowledge this and when they do the mere mention of George W. Bush will yield a response of shame and revulsion.

I think it's safe to say that you could judge your own reaction to 9/11 for what it is, and not think in overly generalized terms.

I agree that Iraq was a misplaced reaction to 9/11, but living in New York I can say our reaction was exactly as you would expect it to be when a piece of our history and thousands of people are obliterated- a reaction of horror, pain, confusion, anger... The Bush Administration used that fear and pain to manipulate the American people.

The reaction level is equal to the level of Sept 11th and in the present of that time Sept 11th was extreme. Hind sight is always 20/20.

September 11 was a black op. The war in Iraq was based on conscious lies crafted by unelected officials (nest of Zionists) from the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans.

These are the same Zionists that are giving us the same bullshit about imaginary Iranian nukes and "wiping Israel off the map." Wake up people, you've been conned several times over.

He is obviously talking about the british response to 9/11, I guess he would have prefered the apathetic response like spain and other countries which in fact just empowers the terrorists!
The USA response was in fact handled with kid gloves to avoid giving the libs anything they could use for political posturing.

I don't think the public response to that terrible day, was an overreaction.

We could not get to grips with the ferocious hate that made those people use planes as bombs. I think we all lost a little faith in the human race that day and that's where the fear stems from.

I do hate how politicians have exploited that fear since the attacks though. I don't like being manipulated.

It's Great to hear this from such a high-ranking and respected member of our society.

I completely agree with what she has to say, and believe not only the government, but now our entire culture has overreacted to 'the terrorist threat' since 9/11.

The Iraq war aside, I was incredibly impressed by Tony Blair's reaction to the 7/7 attacks. He flew back to London, said what needed to be said, then in effect ignored them, and carried on with what he saw was the greater issue at the time: the G8 summit.

The best weapon against terrorism is ignorance. If we respect thoose who suffer in attacks, but carry on afterward as though these things never happen, it wouldn't be an effective tool of political power, and people would stop doing that.

The more we fear terrorism, and the more we retaliate, the longer it will continue to thrive.

Ben K.

That was a good piece.

It's refreshing to have somebody from outside the very political infighting she criticises to pass comment on this.

Our politicians need to grow up and learn to tackle problems like terrorism without using it as a tool to win 4 extra votes in their constituency.

Do you think politicians, the media - and ordinary people's - response to 9/11 was an overreaction?