Douglas Feith

Douglas J. Feith (born July 16, 1953), is a Jewish American who served as the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy for United States President George W. Bush from July 2001 until he resigned from his position effective August 8 2005. Feith holds a J.D. (magna cum laude) from the Georgetown University Law Center and an A.B. (magna cum laude) from Harvard College.

His responsibilities included the formulation of defense planning guidance and forces policy, United States Department of Defense (DoD) relations with foreign countries, and DoD's role in U.S. Government interagency policymaking.

Feith is now on the faculty of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University.

Early life

Feith was born on July 16, 1953, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to Rose and Dalck Feith; he is one of three siblings. Feith's father Dalck was a member of the Betar a Revisionist Zionist youth organization, in Poland, and a Holocaust survivor who lost his parents and seven siblings during the Holocaust. He came to the United States during World War II, and became a successful businessman, a philanthropist, and a generous donor to the Republican party.

Feith grew up in Cheltenham, part of Elkins Park, a Philadelphia suburb. Feith came of age during the tumultuous Civil Rights and Vietnam War era. He attended Philadelphia's Central High School. Of that, Feith wrote "It’s a good school. The class that I was in at Central was the most talented group of kids that I ever went to school with, including college and law school."^[1] [1] Feith's parents, the fate of his grandparents, and the events of his time growing up, imbued Feith with strong and lifelong opinions about government and international relations. According to Feith, "[Neville] Chamberlain wasn’t popular in my house".^[2]

Feith attended Harvard University for his undergraduate degree and graduated magna cum laude in 1975. While at Harvard, Feith says he "benefited especially from the lectures and books of Professor Richard Pipes",^[3] the head of Harvard's Russian Research Center. Feith later said of his tutelage under Pipes: "We were part of a rather small minority in Cambridge who thought that working to bring about the collapse of the Soviet Union was not only a noble pursuit, but a realistic project."^[3] Feith also cites the works of philosophers John Stuart Mill and Edmund Burke as two major intellectual influences.

Feith has expressed ambivalence about the overall intellectual pedigree Harvard gives its students. In an address on March 3, 2005 to Harvard's Kennedy School of Government he said, "I want to reassure the students in the audience: a Harvard degree does not have to be a liability. In conservative political circles, I've found, it may require some explaining." ([2]).

Pipes provided Feith with his initial entry into government, following graduation. Pipes had joined the Reagan administration's National Security Council in 1981 to help carry out the "project" Pipes and his students had conceived ([3]). Feith joined the NSC that year, working for Pipes.

Career

Like his father, Dalck Feith, Douglas Feith is a Republican. [4] Sympathetic to the Neoconservative wing of the Republican party, he has over the last thirty years published many works on U.S. national security policy. For a substantial sample, see [5]. His work on US-Soviet detente, arms control and Arab-Israeli issues generated considerable debate. In particular, his Pro-Israeli Zionist views have drawn criticism. (see e.g.[6]).

Feith has long advocated a policy of peace through strength. He was an outspoken skeptic of U.S.-Soviet detente and of the Oslo, Hebron and Wye Processes on Palestinian-Israeli peace.

Feith first entered government as a Middle East specialist on the National Security Council (NSC) under Ronald Reagan in 1981. He transferred from the NSC Staff to Pentagon in 1982 to work as Special Counsel for Richard Perle, who was then serving as Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security. Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger promoted Feith in 1984 to Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Negotiations Policy and, when Feith left the Pentagon in 1986, Weinberger gave him the highest Defense Department civilian award, the Distinguished Public Service medal. Upon leaving the Pentagon, Feith established the Washington, DC law firm of Feith & Zell. His law firm colleague, Marc Zell, was resident in Israel. Three years later, Feith was retained as a lobbyist by the Turkish government. Among other clients, his firm represented defense corporations Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman.

Feith was a member of the study group which authored a controversial report entitled A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm [7], a set of policy recommendations for the newly elected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The report was published by the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies without an individual author being named. According to the report, Feith was one of the people who participated in roundtable discussions that produced ideas that the report reflects. Feith pointed out in a Sept 16, 2004 letter to the editor of the Washington Post that he was not the co-author and did not clear the report's final text. He wrote, "There is no warrant for attributing any particular idea [in the report], let alone all of them, to any one participant."

Feith criticized the Oslo Accords and the Camp David peace agreement mediated by former President Jimmy Carter between Egypt and Israel. In 1997, he published a lengthy article in Commentary, titled "A Strategy for Israel". In it, Feith argued that the Oslo Accords were being undermined by Yasser Arafat's failure to fulfill peace pledges and Israel's failure to uphold the integrity of the accords it had concluded with Arafat.

Two years later, Feith and other former U.S. officials signed an open letter to President Bill Clinton calling for the United States to oust Saddam Hussein. Feith was part of a group of former national security officials in the 1990s who supported Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress and encouraged the U.S. Congress to pass the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998. That act was approved by Congress and signed into law by President Clinton.

Feith also served on the board of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), a think tank that promotes a military and strategic alliance between the United States and Israel. [8]

Feith is a conservative on foreign policy and arms control. He was an outspoken opponent of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, the International Criminal Court and the Chemical Weapons Convention which he criticized as ineffective and dangerous to U.S. interests.

Feith favors US support for Israel and has promoted US-Israeli cooperation. He also favors stronger US-Turkish cooperation, and increased military ties between Turkey and Israel. Both Feith and his father have been honored by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), a conservative organization that often makes common cause on foreign policy issues with conservative Christian organizations.

Feith also cofounded the organization One Jerusalem to oppose the Oslo peace agreement. Its purpose is "saving a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel." [9][10] He is also Director of Foundation for Jewish Studies, which "offers in-depth study programs for the adult Washington Jewish community that cross denominational lines."

Feith's writings on international law and on foreign and defense policy have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, Commentary, The New Republic and elsewhere. He has contributed chapters to a number of books, including James W. Muller's Churchill as Peacemaker, Raphael Israeli's The Dangers of a Palestinian State and Uri Ra'anan's Hydra of Carnage: International Linkages of Terrorism, as well as serving as co-editor for Israel's Legitimacy in Law and History.

During his time in the Pentagon in the Reagan Administration, Feith was instrumental in getting the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Secretary of Defense Weinberger and Secretary of State Shultz all to recommend (successfully) to the President not to ratify changes to the Geneva Conventions. The changes, known as Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions, would have allowed non-state militants to be treated as combatants and prisoners of war even if they had engaged in practices that endangered non-combatants or otherwise violated the laws of war. President Reagan informed the Senate in 1987 that he would not ratify Protocol I. At the time, both the Washington Post and the New York Times editorialized in favor of President Reagan's decision to reject Protocol I as a revision of humanitarian law that protected terrorists. As Under Secretary, Feith continued to champion US respect for the Geneva Conventions, i.e. his Op-Ed article "Conventional Warfare" in the Wall Street Journal on May 24, 2004. When the logic of President Reagan's decision on Protocol I was applied by President Bush in 2001 in designating Al Qaeda fighters as "enemy combatants" or "unlawful combatants" rather than as "prisoners of war" a passionate debate ensued (and continues) as to whether one is undermining or supporting the Geneva Conventions by designating combatants as "terrorists" and denying detainees POW status.

Feith is now on the faculty of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, where he teaches a course on the Bush administration's antiterrorism policy. He came to Georgetown's School of Foreign Service after leaving Stanford's Hoover Institution and was appointed by School of Foreign Service Dean, Ambassador Robert Gallucci. [11] He is also writing a memoir about his involvement in the War on Terrorism which will be published by HarperCollins, and which is tentatively entitled "The Best Defense: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terror", scheduled to be released in April 2007 [12]. Feith has four children. [13]

Feith confided to The New Yorker in 2005, "When history looks back, I want to be in the class of people who did the right thing, the sensible thing, and not necessarily the fashionable thing, the thing that met the aesthetic of the moment."[14]

Professional praise

Former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld

"Doug Feith, of course, is without question, one of the most brilliant individuals in government. He is – he’s just a rare talent. And from my standpoint, working with him is always interesting. He’s been one of the really the intellectual leaders in the administration in defense policy aspects of our work here." [15]

When Feith left the Defense Department in 2005, Secretary Donald Rumsfeld highlighted the following accomplishments [16]:

A plan to revamp America’s Global Defense Posture -- move troops, move families, move contractors, and facilities from where they were at the end of World War II to the end of the Cold War to where they’re needed and usable
A NATO Response Force to counter threats and to deal with crises
New security relationships in Central Asia and South Asia;
Helping to fashion a new National Security Defense Strategy that helps guide DoD in planning assumptions for the war on terrorism as well as other responsibilities.
The training and equipping of foreign forces;
The creation of an Office of Post-conflict Reconstruction in the Department of State; and
The Global Peace Operations Initiative.

In his speech, Rumsfeld said:

Years from now, unfortunately it may be many years, accurate accounts of what’s taking place these past four years will be written and it will show that Doug Feith has performed his duties with great dedication, with impressive skill and with remarkable vision during this perilous and indeed momentous period in the life of our country.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Ret.) Air Force General Richard Myers

"Doug is very bright and brings a very good strategic view to the table. He has solved some real problems." Myers credited Feith with a "great perspective" and "great respect for the military." In planning the war with Iraq, Feith "looked at implications of various actions that others might not think about", Myers said. [17]

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Marine General Peter Pace

United States Marine Corps General Peter Pace, now the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, worked closely with Feith, co-chairing with him the Defense Department's Campaign Planning Committee (CAPCOM).

At Feith's farewell-from-government ceremony on August 8, 2005, Pace as then vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said:

Doug Feith is a patriot. It irritates me, not that anyone would question his thoughts or his policies -- that is absolutely fair game -- but that anyone would question his loyalty or his motives. I have watched this man for four years. He cares only about what is best for the United States. He works hard to understand as much as he can about the policy arena, and he works hard to articulate what he believes to be true. [18]

The New Yorker May 9, 2005 (p. 36) interviewed Pace about Franks' criticism [see below] and reported: "Pace, who calls Feith a 'true American patriot,' said he did not understand Franks' attack. 'This is not directed at any individual,' Pace said, 'but the less secure an individual is in his thought processes and in his own capacities, the more prone they were to be intimidated by Doug, because he's so smart.'" Pace believes "Early on, [Feith] didn’t realize that the way he presented his positions, the way he was being perceived, put him in a bit of a hole. But he changed his ways."

The same article in The New Yorker reported on Rumsfeld's reaction to Franks:

Feith's most prominent defender is Rumsfeld, who told me that Feith is "one of the brightest people you or I will ever come across. He's diligent, very well read, and insightful." Donald Rumsfeld, Feith's former boss, is also General Pace's superior, and appointed both Feith and Pace to their posts. Donald Rumsfeld explained Feith's trouble with Franks this way: "If you're a combatant commander and you're in the area of operations and you're hearing from people in Washington, what you're hearing is frequently not on point to what you're worrying about at the moment, just as the reverse is also true'" [19]

National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley

In a letter to Feith on the day of his resignation from government, August 8, 2005, Hadley wrote: [20]

Your efforts in developing the war on terrorism strategy, the global defense posture, the President’s June 24, 2002, Middle East speech, and moving forward the president’s agenda on advancing freedom and democracy are among your many significant accomplishments.

For the last four years, you and your fine staff have provided outstanding support to Secretary Rumsfeld and the President.

Your intellectual leadership within the interagency has helped us meet the challenges that face our nation at this critical time. But equally important, you have provided an example of honesty, decency, and integrity that have made you a valued colleague and friend to us all.

Professional criticism

CIA Director Michael Hayden

At CIA Director Michael Hayden's Senate confirmation hearing, Senator Carl Levin asked nominee Michael Hayden about Feith's Office of Special Plans:

Senator Carl Levin: "Were you comfortable with Mr. Feith’s office [21] [22] approach to intelligence analysis?"

CIA Director Michael Hayden: "No, sir, I wasn’t. I wasn’t aware of a lot of the activity going on, you know, when it was contemporaneous with running up to the war. No, sir, I wasn’t comfortable." [23]

Former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice

According to the long-running Washington newsletter, The Nelson Report, edited by Christopher Nelson, quoting an anonymous source, Feith was standing in for Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld at a 2003 interagency 'Principals' Meeting' debating the Middle East, and ended his remarks on behalf of the Pentagon. Then-National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice said, "Thanks Doug, but when we want the Israeli position we'll invite the ambassador." [24]

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell

In Bob Woodward's book Plan of Attack, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell called Feith's operation at the Pentagon the "Gestapo" office because Powell believed it amounted to a separate, unchecked governing authority within the Pentagon.[25]

Soon after publication of the book, Powell said:

I don't recall saying that, but it is a terrible term to use and it is out of place, completely out of place. I have known Doug Feith for many years. We have agreed on many issues and disagreed on some. And I just regret that that has gotten into the literature and become a fact.[26]

Former Pentagon Desk Officer, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski (ret)

Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who was a Desk Officer in Feith's Policy organization, spoke of Feith's style:

"He was very arrogant", Feith's former deputy, says, describing what it was like to work with him. "He doesn't utilize a wide variety of inputs. He seeks information that confirms what he already thinks. And he may go to jail for leaking classified information to The Weekly Standard." [27]

(Karen Kwiatkowski believes an article that appeared in The Weekly Standard included a classified memo written by Feith alleging ties between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda.)

Former Commander Coalition Forces in Iraq, Gen. Tommy Franks (ret)

Before the war in Iraq, the Iraqi National Congress proposed recruiting a brigade of Free Iraqi Forces to enter Iraq with the Americans. Feith supported the idea behind the project. Tommy Franks did not, as reported in the book Cobra II: "Franks remained unenthusiastic, to say the least. After a briefing from [Feith's aide Bill] Luti on his pet project, Franks turned to Feith in a Pentagon corridor, letting him know where he stood: 'I don't have time for this f--king bullshit,' Franks exclaimed." [28]

United States Army General Tommy Franks, according to Bob Woodward's 2004 Plan of Attack, described Feith as the "fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth" (p.281). [29][30]. In his autobiography, American Soldier, Tommy Franks describes a conversation with his subordinates who were upset with Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith; Franks tells them, "I'll worry about OSD, all of them, including Doug Feith, who's getting a reputation around here as the dumbest fucking guy on the planet."^[4]

On the April 14, 2006 edition of Hardball with Chris Matthews, Franks changed his assessment of Feith in the following exchange:

HOST CHRIS MATTHEWS: What did you think on a scale of one to 10 of the military expertise, of the civilians surrounding Secretary Rumsfeld, the people like Wolfowitz and Feith? How would you on a scale of 1 to 10, where would you put their military savvy?

FRANKS: I would put the dipstick at oh—-with a reasonable degree of understanding, I would put Doug Feith in a category as a brilliant man with some military understanding, but both of these gentlemen were apt to think out of the box. And candidly, Chris, for all I know, maybe that's what Don Rumsfeld wanted them to do.

MATTHEWS: Were they ideologues or were they analysts?

FRANKS: In my personal [opinion], they were analysts. Now, that does not imply that I'm making some statement that they were not ideologues, maybe so, but that's not the way that I saw them. [31]

Former Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State, Larry Wilkerson

In 2005, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to then Secretary of State Colin Powell, publicly stated he could "testify to" Franks' 2004 comment, and added "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man." [32][33]

Regarding Feith and his colleague, David Wurmser, Colonel Wilkerson has stated:

A lot of these guys, including Wurmser, I looked at as card-carrying members of the Likud party, as I did with Feith. You wouldn’t open their wallet and find a card, but I often wondered if their primary allegiance was to their own country or to Israel. That was the thing that troubled me, because there was so much that they said and did that looked like it was more reflective of Israel’s interest than our own.[34]

Former CENTCOM Deputy Director, Lt. General Michael DeLong

In an interview with PBS on 14 February 2006, General DeLong was asked about the information coming from Feith's office in the lead-up to the Iraq war. He replied:

Feith wasn't somebody we enjoyed working with, and to go much further than that would probably not be a good thing. To be honest, we blew him off lots of times. Told the secretary that he's full of baloney, his people working for him are full of baloney. It was a real distraction for us, because he was the number three guy in the Department of Defense.[35]

Other criticisms

In an interview for C-SPAN Q & A on February 25, 2007, Andrew Cockburn quoted an unknown pentagon official describing Feith as "the sycophant to end all sycophants."

Accusations and rebuttals

1982 NSC alleged firing and security clearance controversy

It has been alleged by Former NSC Intelligence Director Vincent Cannistraro and author Stephen Green that Douglas Feith involuntarily left the NSC in March, 1982 and lost his security clearance after he fell under suspicion of the FBI for passing classified material to Israeli embassy officials who were not entitled to receive it. [36][37][38] This would have required the Bush administration to reissue Feith his clearance before bringing him into the Pentagon. [39] This version of events is disputed by the NSC head at the time, Judge William Clark. When a Montana newspaper reported this accusation, Clark, who was President Reagan's National Security Adviser at the relevant time, wrote a September 22, 2005 letter to the editor [40] to correct the record:

Your article cites a Mr. Cannistraro to the effect that Mr. Feith was fired for wrongdoing from President Reagan's National Security Council in 1982. I was President Reagan's National Security Advisor at the time and I tell you that is untrue. Mr. Feith served honorably on my staff and went on to serve well at the Pentagon under Secretary Cap Weinberger. Because of his fine record, President George W. Bush hired him as his Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

Feith and the Office of Special Plans

Feith at the Office of Special Plans

Feith led the controversial Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon from September 2002 to June 2003. [41] This now defunct intelligence gathering unit has been accused of manipulating intelligence to bolster support for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. [42] According to the British newspaper, The Guardian, "This rightwing intelligence network [was] set up in Washington to second-guess the CIA and deliver a justification for toppling Saddam Hussein by force."[43] According to Feith's former deputy, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, the Office of Special Plans was "a propaganda shop" and she personally "witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president." [44] [45] Senator Carl Levin, in an official report on Feith's Office of Special Plans singles Feith out as providing to the White House a large amount of Iraq-Al Qaeda allegations which, post-invasion, turned out to be false. [46]

Actions Feith authorized at the Office of Special Plans concerning Iraq

A source of Iraqi WMD intelligence was overseas "back-channel" meetings with foreign citizens, which Feith authorized. [47] According to Newsday and The Boston Globe, these foreigners included former Iran-Contra figures [48] and agents of Iraqi politician, Ahmad Chalabi [49] who were shopping [50] WMD [51] intelligence to the Office of Special Plans. [52]. As Feith's former deputy described, this unvetted WMD information was then "stove-piped" to the White House outside of established intelligence review safeguards for use in building support for the war.[53] Post invasion, the Iraq Survey Group found Iraq had no stocks of WMD, and had not produced WMD since 1991.[54]

Actions Feith authorized at the Office of Special Plans concerning Iran

The "back-channel" meetings Feith authorized dealt not only with Iraq, but also with Iran. When then Secretary of State Colin Powell learned that Feith was authorizing secret meetings with former Iran-Contra figures such as arms dealer Manucher Ghorbanifar to investigate options for regime change in Iran, he angrily complained on August 9, 2003 directly to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and then National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice about Feith conducting unauthorized missions that were contrary to official U.S. policy. A senior Administration official said the US Government had learned about the unauthorised talks "accidentally", and that it was unsettling "the government hadn't learnt the lessons of last time around", referring to the secret contacts and rogue operations that led to Iran-Contra. [55] Feith's authorization of contact with Manucher Ghorbanifar was also controversial because the CIA determined in 1984 that Ghorbanifar "should be regarded as an intelligence fabricator", and put him under a Burn Notice, warning other intelligence agencies not to use him. [56]

Investigations of the Office of Special Plans and of Feith

Officially, Feith is currently under investigation by the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).[57] Republican Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts began the investigation when he wrote to the Pentagon Inspector General asking him to start the review:

“The Committee is concerned about persistent and, to date, unsubstantiated allegations that there was something unlawful or improper about the activities of the Office of Special Plans within the office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy. . . . I have not discovered any credible evidence of unlawful or improper activity, yet the allegations persist.” In an attempt to lay these allegations to rest once and for all, he requested the Inspector General to “initiate an investigation into the activities of the Office of Special Plans during the period prior to the initiation of Operation Iraqi Freedom to determine whether any of [its] activities were unlawful or improper; . . . [that is,] whether the personnel assigned to the Office of Special Plans, at any time, conducted unauthorized, unlawful, or inappropriate intelligence activities.” Senator Levin has asked the Inspector General to look at the activities of the OUSDP generally, and not just the OSP. The SSCI is awaiting the outcome of the DOD Inspector General’s review." [58] Sources within the SSCI report Feith and the Defense Department have been less than helpful to their investigation. [59]

As of March, 2006 the news organisation Rawstory reports Republican Pat Roberts, head of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was not allowing a complete investigation of Feith and his role at Office of Special Plans. "One former intelligence official suggested that part of the reason for deferring the Feith inquiry was its sensitivity. A Feith investigation might unravel a bigger can of worms, the source said" [60]

Defense Department Inspector General Report Issued

Tasked to examine a briefing that members of Feith's Policy office delivered in summer-fall 2002 to Secretary Rumsfeld, CIA Director Tenet and White House officials including Steve Hadley and Scooter Libby, the Defense Department Inspector General Thomas Gimble found on February 9, 2007 that Feith's office did nothing unlawful, unauthorized or that attempted to mislead Congress [61] But, the Policy briefing's criticisms of the CIA's intelligence work were found by Gimble to be "inappropriate" because they were "inconsistent with the consensus of the intelligence community." [62]

The Policy briefing in question "did not provide the most accurate analysis of intelligence to senior decision makers", Gimble argued, at a time when the White House was moving toward war with Iraq. [63]

In February 2007, Feith launched an Internet website [64] following the Defense Department's Inspector General report on pre-Iraq-War activities of the Pentagon's policy organization. The report, “spawned a lot of inaccurate commentary by politicians and misreporting by journalists,” and Feith said he launched the website, “to provide accurate information and sound commentary on the IG report controversy. I will use it also to provide reliable news items and other material about the work of the policy organization during my tenure as Under Secretary.”

Feith's undergraduate work at Harvard and National Security Council position under Professor Richard Pipes in the 1970s and 80's presages present-day controversy over intelligence critiques. At University, Feith was involved with "Team B" analysis: or critiques of existing intelligence. [65] In the late 1970s, many American Conservatives believed the Soviet Union was a qualitatively graver threat than US intelligence agencies believed. These fears later proved unfounded. Feith applied a similar ideological lens to existing intelligence regarding Iraq. [66] [67] Unfortunately, just as Team B had 30 years prior, Feith's exercise in alternative intelligence produced incorrect conclusions about the seriousness of the threat under investigation. [68]

The response to the Inspector General's report has been determined along partisan lines.^[5]^[6]

Subordinate's involvement in the AIPAC espionage scandal

A subordinate of Douglas Feith, Larry Franklin, was convicted, and sentenced to 12 years in Federal prison in 2005 for charges in the AIPAC espionage scandal. Larry Franklin was accused, and convicted, of passing classified information to an Israeli diplomat and Steven Rosen, an employee of the Israeli AIPAC lobby. The ongoing FBI counter-espionage probe into improper transmission of classified information to AIPAC from 1999 to shortly before the 2003 Iraq Invasion could involve Feith [69], who refuses to comment on the investigation. [70] Franklin was one of 1,500 [71] employees at Feith's Pentagon office, and officially worked six layers of bureaucracy beneath Feith. However, while leading the Office of Special Plans Feith used Larry Franklin repeatedly for sensitive meetings involving foreign citizens, overseas. [72]

Pop culture references

A segment entitled "Pentagon Capers" on the comedy news show The Daily Show featured Feith and his alleged mishandling of intelligence regarding Iraq and Al-Qaeda where it was stated that he was able to support his fatally erroneous claims because of his "enormous" "elastic inflatable balls".

Footnotes

^ Feldman, William (April 14, 2005). "In Defense of America, he's third in line". Northeast Times. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Goldberg, Jeffery (May 9, 2005). "A Little Learning: What Douglas Feith knew, and when he knew it". New Yorker. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ ^a ^b Feith, Douglas (April 23, 2004). "Defense, democracy and the war on terrorism". US Department of Defense. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Tommy Franks, American Soldier p. 563.
^ "Review of Pre-Iraqi War Activities by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy" (PDF). United States Department of Defense Office of Inspector General. February 10, 2007. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
^ Cloud, David (February 10, 2007). "Inquiry on Intelligence Gaps May Reach to White House". New York Times. Retrieved 2007-02-12. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)

External links