Douglas Feith
Douglas Jay Feith served as the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy[1], the third ranking civilian position at the Pentagon[2], from July 2001 until his resignation effective August 8, 2005.
Intelligence Controversy
Intelligence was produced by the Counter Terrorism Evaluation Group, created by Feith, while he was under secretary of defence for policy[3]. The group “developed, produced and then disseminated" Intelligence reports that linked Iraq and Al Qaeda [4]
Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, criticised the intelligence produced by Feith's group, he said “I think they sought this kind of intelligence. They made it clear they wanted any kind of possible connections, no matter how skimpy, and they got it,”. The Sept. 11 commission, which found “no evidence” that contacts between the Iraqi government and Al Qaeda “ever developed into a collaborative operational relationship[5].”
The intelligence included a section that contended there were "Fundamental Problems With How (the Intelligence Community) Is Assessing Information. This created the impression that there was a problem with the wider intelligence community who did not endorse the links between Al-Qaeda and Iraq[6]
Geneva Convention
Feith was the architect of the argument that the Bush administration used to absolve themselves from the constraints of the Geneva convention. The argument was that Geneva didn’t apply at all to al-Qaeda fighters, because they weren’t part of a state and therefore couldn’t claim rights under a treaty that was binding only on states. Geneva did apply to the Taliban, but by Geneva’s own terms Taliban fighters weren’t entitled to P.O.W. status, because they hadn’t worn uniforms or insignia. That would still leave the safety net provided by the rules reflected in Common Article 3— but detainees could not rely on this either, on the theory that its provisions applied only to “armed conflict not of an international character,” which the administration interpreted to mean civil war. This was new. In reaching this conclusion, the Bush administration simply abandoned all legal and customary precedent that regards Common Article 3 as a minimal bill of rights for everyone[7]
References
- ↑ Jim Lobe, Feith Finds a Home, 31-October-2008, Accessed 25-April-2009
- ↑ Spencer Akerman, No Faith in Feith, The Guardian, 9-February-2007, Accessed 25-April-2009
- ↑ James Risen, [1]How Pair's Finding on Terror Led to Clash on Shaping Intelligence, New York Times, 28-April-2004, Accessed 25-April-2009
- ↑ David S. Cloud and Mark Mazzetti, Prewar Intelligence Unit at Pentagon Is Criticized New York Times, 9-February-2007, Accessed 25-April-2009
- ↑ David S. Cloud and Mark Mazzetti, Prewar Intelligence Unit at Pentagon Is Criticized New York Times, 9-February-2007, Accessed 25-April-2009
- ↑ Spencer Akerman, No Faith in Feith, The Guardian, 9-February-2007, Accessed 25-April-2009
- ↑ Phillipe Sands, The Green Light, Vanity Fair, May-2008, Accessed 25-April-2009
