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In news stories about Franklin, Feith's name has appeared because Franklin worked for Feith in the ] when Feith was Under Secretary in charge of the ]. The New York Times has reported (''"Pentagon analyst was cooperating when Israel spy case became public, officials say."'' By David Johnston and Eric Schmidt, page A12, August 30, 2004), however, that Franklin was one of around 1500 people who reported to Feith and worked six levels in the bureaucracy below the Under Secretary. Whatever the organization charts say, however, while at the ] Douglas Feith used ] repeatedly for sensitive projects involving foreign citizen contacts, overseas. Under Feith's authorization, ] met with ] figures who were now shopping ] ] intelligence.Unauthorized information transmitted to foreign citizens was a reason for ]'s 12 year Federal Prison sentence. In news stories about Franklin, Feith's name has appeared because Franklin worked for Feith in the ] when Feith was Under Secretary in charge of the ]. The New York Times has reported (''"Pentagon analyst was cooperating when Israel spy case became public, officials say."'' By David Johnston and Eric Schmidt, page A12, August 30, 2004), however, that Franklin was one of around 1500 people who reported to Feith and worked six levels in the bureaucracy below the Under Secretary. Whatever the organization charts say, however, while at the ] Douglas Feith used ] repeatedly for sensitive projects involving foreign citizen contacts, overseas. Under Feith's authorization, ] met with ] figures who were now shopping ] ] intelligence.Unauthorized information transmitted to foreign citizens was a reason for ]'s 12 year Federal Prison sentence.


Feith stopped working for DoD in mid 2005. This has led to the speculation that the AIPAC investigation was the reason for that. ] denies that saying, "personal and family reasons" was the reason for his departure, he does have 4 children. An anonymous administration official speculated ''"I think they decided to get rid him of long ago but were afraid that doing so would have been seen as a tacit admission that Bush screwed up in Iraq,"'' Feith stopped working for DoD in mid 2005. This has led to the speculation that the AIPAC investigation was the reason for that. ] denies that saying, "personal and family reasons" was the reason for his departure. Feith has four children. An anonymous administration official speculated ''"I think they decided to get rid him of long ago but were afraid that doing so would have been seen as a tacit admission that Bush screwed up in Iraq,"''


However beside such speculations, noone has linked Feith to Franklin's crimes or the ongoing prosecution of the ], although the probe continues. However beside such speculations, noone has linked Feith to Franklin's crimes or the ongoing prosecution of the ], although the probe continues.

Revision as of 02:20, 10 February 2006

Douglas Feith

Douglas J. Feith (born July 16, 1953) 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.

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

  • 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."

Feith led the controversial Office of Special Plans at the Pentagon from September 2002 to June of 2003. This now defunct intelligence gathering unit has been accused of manipulating intelligence to bolster support for the 2003 US invasion of Iraq. Specifically, it is alleged Feith authorized subordinates to conduct overseas "back-channel" meetings with foreign citizens for the purpose of gathering intelligence on Iraqi WMD. These foreigners included former Iran-Contra figures who were now shopping Iraq WMD intelligence.. Post invasion, the Iraq Survey Group found Iraq had no stocks of WMD, nor the capability to produce them. The accusations against Feith are under investigation by the Pentagon's Inspector General and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Sources within the SSCI report Feith and the Defense Department have been less than helpful in their investigation into the Office of Special Plans prewar activities.

Feith is now a Distinguished Visiting Fellow of the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and is co-chairing a task force on strategies for combating terrorism at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. He is writing a memoir about his work on the War on Terrorism which will be published by HarperCollins. He may soon take a position in the faculty of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

Background

Feith is a neoconservative. He has over the last thirty years published many works on U.S. national security policy. For a substantial sample, see . His work on US-Soviet detente, arms control and Arab-Israeli issues generated considerable debate. In particular, his writings on Israel and Zionism have drawn attacks from those who oppose his views. (see e.g. ).

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 under controversial circumstances 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.

Various newspaper stories and books have asserted that Feith was a co-author of a controversial report A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm , a set of policy reccomendations 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 atrributing any particular idea , let alone all of them, to any one participant."

Feith wrote critically about the Oslo process 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 magazine, titled "A Strategy for Israel." In it, Feith argued that the Oslo Process was being undermined by Yasser Arafat's failure to fulfill his 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 US officials signed an open letter to President Bill Clinton calling for the United States to work to oust Saddam Hussein. Feith was part of a community of former national security officials in the 1990s who supported the work of Ahmad Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress to encourage the US 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 military and strategic ties between the United States and Israel.

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 Israeli security and has promoted US-Israeli cooperation. He also farvors stronger US-Turkish coorporation, and increased military ties between Turkey and Israel. His late father, Dalck Feith, a philanthropist and businessman from Philadelphia, was a Holocaust survivor who had been active in the Zionist youth movement Betar in Poland before World War II. Both father and son were honored by the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) which is conservative in its policy positions and often makes common cause on foreign policy issues with conservative Christian organizations.

Feith also cofounded the organisation OneJerusalem to defend against the Oslo peace agreement. It has as cause to "saving a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel.". 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, was once in 2003 standing in for Rumsfeld at an interagency 'Principals' Meeting' debating the Middle East, and ended his remarks on behalf of the Pentagon. Then Rice said, "Thanks Doug, but when we want the Israeli position we'll invite the ambassador." according to the Washington insider newsletter, the Nelson Report.

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 terrorists 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 pro-terrorist revision of humanitarian law. As Under Secretary, Feith continued to champion US respect for the Geneva Conventions. See his oped article "Conventional Warfare" in Wall Street Journal 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 and Taliban 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 giving terrorist detainees POW status.

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). . In his biography, American Soldier, Tommy Franks clarified the context of this phrase by stating that he was talking to his subordinates who were upset with Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and Feith and Franks said that his actual words were 'word is going around that Feith is the fucking stupidest guy on the face of the earth'; thus, he says he was reporting what he heard about Feith rather than expressing his own personal opinion. In 2005, Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, publicly stated he could "testify to" Franks' comment and added "Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man."

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). The New Yorker May 9, 2005 (p. 36) interviewed Pace about Franks' criticism 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.'" The same New Yorker article 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.' 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.'"

Accusations and Refutations

Fired and clearences revoked

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. Feith's security clearances were restored by the Bush adinistration after 2000. 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 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."

Involvement in AIPAC 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 of passing classified information to foreign citizens not entitled to receive it. The ongoing FBI counter-espionage probe into improper transmission of classified information to AIPAC and Ahmed Chalabi from 1999 to shortly before the 2003 Iraq Invasion could involve Feith, who refuses to comment on the investigation.

In news stories about Franklin, Feith's name has appeared because Franklin worked for Feith in the Office of Special Plans when Feith was Under Secretary in charge of the Office of Special Plans. The New York Times has reported ("Pentagon analyst was cooperating when Israel spy case became public, officials say." By David Johnston and Eric Schmidt, page A12, August 30, 2004), however, that Franklin was one of around 1500 people who reported to Feith and worked six levels in the bureaucracy below the Under Secretary. Whatever the organization charts say, however, while at the Office of Special Plans Douglas Feith used Larry Franklin repeatedly for sensitive projects involving foreign citizen contacts, overseas. Under Feith's authorization, Larry Franklin met with Iran-Contra figures who were now shopping Iraq WMD intelligence.Unauthorized information transmitted to foreign citizens was a reason for Larry Franklin's 12 year Federal Prison sentence.

Feith stopped working for DoD in mid 2005. This has led to the speculation that the AIPAC investigation was the reason for that. Richard Perle denies that saying, "personal and family reasons" was the reason for his departure. Feith has four children. An anonymous administration official speculated "I think they decided to get rid him of long ago but were afraid that doing so would have been seen as a tacit admission that Bush screwed up in Iraq,"

However beside such speculations, noone has linked Feith to Franklin's crimes or the ongoing prosecution of the AIPAC espionage scandal, although the probe continues.

Further reading

  • Clear Ideas vs. Foggy Bottom by Melanie Kirkpatrick, Wall Street Journal August 5, 2003, p. A8.
  • White House Learned of Spy Probe in 2001 by Curt Anderson, Associated Press, September 3, 2004.
  • Chain of Command: The Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib by Seymour Hersh, New York: Harper Collins. 2004. ISBN 0060195916.
  • Israel's Legitimacy in Law and History by Siegel, Edward M.; Feith, Douglas J.; & Louis D. Brandeis, Conference on International Law and the Arab-Israeli Conflict, Society of Zionist Lawyers, 1994, Center for Near East Policy, ISBN 0964014505.
  • A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm by David Wurmser, 1996
  • Plan of Attack by Bob Woodward, New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004, ISBN 074325547X.

External links

Biographies

References

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