Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski Wins 2018 Sam Adams Award
November 29, 2018
Karen Kwiatkowski has won the 2018 Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in
Intelligence award for trying to stop the "shock and awe" attack on Iraq.
Kwiatkowski is featured in the film "Shock and Awe" to be shown at an awards
ceremony Saturday.
By Ray McGovern
Dishonest (not "mistaken") intelligence greased the skids for the widespread
killing and maiming in the Middle East that began with the Cheney/Bush
"Shock and Awe" attack on Iraq. The media reveled in the unconscionable (but
lucrative) buzzword "shock-and-awe" for the initial attack. In retrospect,
the real shock lies in the awe-some complicity of virtually all "mainstream
media" in the leading false predicate for this war of aggression - weapons
of mass destruction (WMD).
Only one major media group, Knight Ridder, avoided the presstitution, so to
speak. It faced into the headwinds blowing from the "acceptable" narrative,
did the investigative spadework, and found patriotic insiders who told them
the truth. Karen Kwiatkowski, who had a front-row seat at the Pentagon, was
one key source for the intrepid Knight Ridder journalists. Karen tells us
that her actual role is accurately portrayed by the professional actress in
the Rob Reiner's film "Shock and Awe."
Other members of the Sam Adams Associates were involved as well, but we will
leave it to them to share on Saturday evening how they helped Knight Ridder
accurately depict the pre-war administration/intelligence/media fraud.
Kwiatkowski.
Intelligence Fraud
More recently, former National Intelligence Director James Clapper added a
coda to pre-Iraq-War intelligence performance. Clapper was put in charge of
imagery analysis before the Iraq war and was able to conceal the fact that
there were were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In his memoir,
Clapper writes that Vice President Cheney "was pushing" for imagery analysis
"to find (emphasis in original) the WMD sites."
For the record, none were found because there were none, although Clapper -
"eager to help" - gave it the old college try. Clapper proceeds, in a
matter-of-fact way, to blame not only pressure from the Cheney/Bush
administration, but also "the intelligence officers, including me, who were
so eager to help that we found what wasn't really there."
Regarding those Clapper-produced "artist renderings" of "mobile production
facilities for biological agents"? Those trucks "were in fact used to
pasteurize and transport milk," Clapper admits nonchalantly. When challenged
on all this while promoting his memoir at the Carnegie Endowment in
Washington, Clapper gave not the slightest hint that it occurred to him his
performance was somewhat lacking.
Media: Consequential Malfeasance
As for the self-licking ice cream cone that "mainstream media" have become,
and how they overlook little peccadillos like feeding at the government PR
trough and helping Cheney and Bush attack Iraq, well - now, now - let's not
be nasty. Here's how Jill Abramson, The New York Times Washington Bureau
Chief from 2000 to 2003, while the Times acted as drum major for the war,
lets Bob Woodward off the hook for his own abysmal investigative
performance.
Reviewing Woodward's recent book on the Trump White House, Abramson praises
his "dogged investigative reporting," noting that he has won two Pulitzer
Prizes, and adds: "His work has been factually unassailable." Then she (or
perhaps an editor) adds in parenthesis: "(His judgment is certainly not
perfect, and he has been self-critical about his belief, based on reporting
before the Iraq War, that there were weapons of mass destruction.)"
Are we to believe that the Abramsons, Woodwards, et al. of the media elite
simply missed the WMD deception? (Hundreds of insiders knew of it, and
some were willing to share the truth with Knight Ridder and some other
reporters.) Or did the media moguls simply hunker down and let themselves
be co-opted into helping Cheney/Bush start a major war? The latter seems
much more likely: and transparent attempts to cover up for one another,
still, is particularly sad - and consequential. Having suffered no
consequences (for example, in 2003 Abramson was promoted to Managing Editor
of the NYT), the "mainstream media" appear just as likely to do a redux on
Iran.
This is why there will be a premium on honest insider patriots, like Karen
Kwiatkowski, to rise to the occasion and try to prevent the next war. Bring
along your insider friends on Saturday; they need to know about Karen and
about Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence.
Please do come and join us in congratulating Karen Kwiatkowski and the other
SAAII members who also helped Knight Ridder get the story right. (Those
others shall remain unnamed until Saturday.) And let insiders know this:
they are not likely to hear about all this otherwise.
Samuel Alexander Adams (June 14, 1934 - October 10, 1988), known as Sam
Adams, was an analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He is best
known for his role in discovering that during the mid-1960s American
military intelligence had underestimated the number of Viet Cong and North
Vietnamese Army soldiers.
Date: Saturday, December 8, 2018
Time: 6:30 PM Showing of film, "Shock and Awe"
8:00 PM Presentation 17th annual Sam Adams Award
Ceremony will include remarks by Larry Wilkerson, 7th SAAII
awardee (in 2009)
Place: The Festival Center, 1640 Columbia Road, NW, Washington, DC 20009
FREE: But RSVP, if you can, to give us an idea of how many to expect; email:
raylmcgovern@xxxxxxxxx
ALL WELCOME: Lots of space in main conference room
