THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

Senate Report Condemns Bush Falsification of Iraq 'Evidence'

Summing up its Phase II Final Report on Prewar Iraqi Intelligence,U.S.Senate Intelligence Committee Chmn. Jay Rockefeller [D.-W.Va.) today said:

"Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence.

"In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq as much greater than actually existed."

A bipartisan 10-5 majority voted in favor of the report. The panel said that intelligence was unable to substantiate "statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State" suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa’ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa’ida with weapons training,

The committee also rejected:

1) "Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information;

2) Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products;

3) Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq’s chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community’s uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing:

4) The Secretary of Defense’s statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information.

5) The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed.

DARPA Explores Use of ICBMs for Surveillance Tech Deployment

The swift, global deployment of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment using non-lethal intercontinental ballistic missiles is one of the latest initiatives to come out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). According to a Special Notice that The Peacock Report located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, the goal of the Rapid Eye program is to develop and "deliver a persistent ISR capability anywhere on the globe within one hour..."

While currently in the conceptual stage, DARPA envisions the creation of an intercontinental ballistic missile system to deliver what is known as a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle to geographic targets of interest. The agency on July 25 will meet with industry and scientific-community representatives to discuss the project. Booz Allen Hamilton, a consulting firm and military contractor, is hosting this "industry day" event at its Arlington, Va. offices.

Media Miss NSA Angle on Navy 'Telecom' Project in Hawaii

Recent media coverage of a $320 million contract to modernize a Navy technology facility in Hawaii have missed -- or ignored -- one critical element of the construction project: this so-called "telecommunications" site also serves as a National Security Agency (NSA) global surveillance center.

The Peacock Report more than a year ago was the first news outlet in the world to report that the Hawaii Cryptologic Center and other NSA facilities would receive hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and technological upgrades. The piece NSA To Pour Hundreds of Millions Into Surveillance Infrastructure back on April 20, 2006 was a major breaking-news story for TPR; unlike mainstream- and business-media reports a full year later -- reports based simply on a regurgitation of corporate and federal press releases announcing the Shaw-Dick Pacific, LLC, contract -- TPR routinely conducts government-database searches and scours congressional reports to obtain unannounced information often far in advance of "official" release dates.

Please support the efforts of TPR by purchasing a copy of Hotel Dick, a memoir by TPR editor Steve Peacock, or by making a donation via TPR's "tip jar" located on this web site. We thank you in advance,

With Libby, Injustice for All

Various neoconservative pundits and politicians are praising President Bush's commutation of the jail sentence for convicted felon Lewis "Scooter" Libby, former chief adviser to Vice-President Dick Cheney; others, however, such as former federal prosecutor Elizabeth de la Vega, are denouncing the president's involvement in this situation as "an egregious abuse of power."

While most news outlets are focusing their post-commutation coverage on the responses of Bush apologists such as former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), the Institute for Public Accuracy (IPA) is making available the following folks for additional viewpoints on the matter:

'Traitor Psychology' Getting Expanded Role in DoD 'Deception-Detection' Training

Assessing the "psychology of traitors" is among the numerous areas of expertise that the Pentagon's Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA) unit hopes to instill in its investigators and polygraph examiners. CIFA is soliciting private-sector help in jointly developing advanced training in this and other areas in the so-called "science of the psycho physiological detection of deception (PDD)," according to a planning document that The Peacock Report (TPR) recently located.

CIFA's Defense Academy of Credibility Assessment (DACA) claims that it seeks to raise the bar on its graduate-level, "human screening" training because:

The post 9/11 situation and environments have brought change to our mission. Issues associated with the Global War on Terrorism now mandate that federal polygraph examiners possess a broad knowledge that enables them to conduct all facets of investigations using credibility assessment tools. The topics encompassed by this course will prepare the federal examiner for these missions.

The Psychology of Traitors segment of the training specifically will examine "the motivation and psychological makeup of traitors." In relation to this proposed area of study, the document poses the question, "Can these personality types by predicted and isolated?"

The document, it should be noted, does not define the word "traitor."

In another recent deception-detection front, TPR on April 21 had reported that CIFA/DACA also planned to outsource an overall assessment of existing "rapid human-screening" methods. This contracting action was slated to be a two-phase project involving "a review of existing literature on techniques and technologies, as well as testing of such methods on 'human participants.'"

Searchable Database of CIA Abuses Now Available

The National Security Archive of George Washington University is now making available to the public "The CIA's Family Jewels" collection of declassified documents -- material that the privately run archive obtained after years of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and legal battles with the agency. Among its most astounding revelations is the now-verifiable fact that the CIA violated its own charter by spying on American citizens, including journalists and peace advocates.

For more information on how to obtain government documents -- requests that any concerned individual can make -- check out the archive's FOIA Basics page for a tutorial and other critical information.

Also, if you wish to support the work of this important organization, please consider making a pledge to the National Security Archive Fund.

CIA-Special Forces Cooperation-Training To Be Outsourced

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) "culture" and "counterterrorism (CT) targeting methods and practices" are the focus of training that a Northern Virginia contractor was slated to begin providing this month to the elite U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), recently located procurement-documents show. According to a sources sought notice that The Peacock Report obtained via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, USSOCOM had intended to award a sole-source contract for the classes to SpecTal, a  Reston, Va.-based consulting firm composed of ex-CIA, FBI, Dept. of Defense, State Dept., and other former federal employees.

"SPECTAL is the only known source for the required training," a notice dated May 15 said. "They are the only known source which can provide training based on direct operational experience."

However, it appears that other potential contractors may have contested this proposed sole-source award, evidenced by a revised notice posted to FedBizOpps on May 29. In that notice, USSOCOM notified contract-seekers that the previous solicitation document was:

NO LONGER VALID. THIS REQUIREMENT IS BEING PROCURED THROUGH FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION. PLEASE SEE SOLICITATION NUMBER 05222007 AT THE FOLLOWING LINK: http://www.fbo.gov/spg/ODA/USSOCOM/SOAL-KB/05222007/listing.html

Although the link leads to a "Not Found: Does Not Exist On This Server" message, a database search of the above-mentioned solicitation-number  did indeed result in a separate solicitation for competitive proposals -- a solicitation that USSOCOM issued, ironically, one week before the release of the modified notice from May 29.

The following is a run-down of the proposed training regimen... regardless of who teaches the classes. According to the original and revised documents:

Training on CIA Culture, at a minimum, shall include instruction on the following:

1. Cultural differences between the CIA and Special Operations Forces (SOF);   
2. Strategies for increasing cooperation between the CIA and SOF both in theatre and at HQ SOCOM and examples where cooperation failed at both levels;    
3. Exercises, at both levels, which will increase cooperation;
4. Demonstration of successful completion of this course means a student will be able to understand the cultural differences between the CIA and SOCOM, operate within the CIA environment, request information from the CIA and support a CIA lead operation.

Training on CIA CT targeting, at a minimum, shall include instruction on the following:

1. Targeting methods and practices overview;
2. Targeting as analytical support to operations;   
3. Targeting as adding structure and process to operations, including the basics of human assets and the human source acquisition cycle; 
4. CIA targeting concepts and methodologies;
5. An applicable targeting exercise bringing together all instructional areas;
6. Demonstration of successful completion of this course means a student will understand DoD and CIA targeting, roles of targeteers, philosophies of targeting and the differences between DoD and CIA in each of these areas.