(2004-06-30) Bamford Pretext For War

James Bamford, author of The Puzzle Palace and BodyOfSecrets, both about the NSA, has now written A Pretext For War (ISBN:0-385-50672-4 ) about the War On Iraq. Time Mag says it is probably the best one-volume companion to the harrowing events in the war on terrorism (Dealing With Terrorism) since 1996, chiefly because it focuses on the most difficult to pierce subject: the hidden machinery of U.S. intelligence.

Douglas Farah says Bamford also notes that it was the Vulcans Richard Perle and Douglas Feith, together with senior State Department adviser David Wormser, who drafted the basic outlines of George W Bush's plan to oust Saddam Hussein, including the doctrine of preemption, back in the mid-1990s, when they were advising Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu rejected the plan, which gathered dust until Bush's election, when the group returned to the corridors of power. Bamford says that the new fortunes of Perle, Feith and Wormser, together with Bush's personal determination to repay Saddam for his attempt to kill Bush's father, were instrumental in America's decision to go to war.